knitelly

Hanging Garden update

2008-01-13T23:56:00.001Z

Yesterday my friend S hit the big four-oh. The celebrations kicked off with a long lunch with friends, then S and I retired to a very nice pub in Hammersmith, where we lounged on sofas, drank champagne, [I knitted some sock,] and set out our goals for 2008, before rounding off the evening with a visit to the cinema to see Charlie Wilson's War. It was a thoroughly enjoyable day.

I didn't finish S's birthday stole in time . In fact, due to staying late at work this week, I've only managed a couple of rows in the evening before falling asleep. However, several hours relaxing in front of the telly today allowed for much knitting, and what you see here are three pattern repeats. [The flash has completely drained the yarn's beautiful colour, so a closer representation is below.] My new deadline is the first week of February, which is when S and I are due to meet next, so clearly I need to move it up a gear.

A new year

2008-01-06T22:50:00.000Z

What an amazing turn-out at I Knit's New Year knit-in this week. We were a massive group of knitters at the Royal Festival Hall, which is just a fab venue, stylish, open and spacious with lots of light. I think it might become a regular haunt.

It really was nice to see so many knitters and quite a few new faces. I hope they all enjoyed the evening and come again. As ever, it was great to catch up with the usual suspects, everyone was on good form, and Melissa and I continue to compete against each other to be the slowest to finish their travelling sock.

I irritated everyone that evening with a ferocious cough. On Boxing Day, I had returned to London late in the evening, feeling unwell, and the next day I was in bed with 'flu. I was completely wiped out for the next few days, but I thought I was well enough to go back to work on the 2nd. In fact, just one day in the office and the knit-in was enough to send me back to bed again for the rest of the week.

So, despite spending the best part of a fortnight at home, there has been precious little knitting. At some point I managed another repeat on the Flower Basket Shawl, but for the most part I have had no energy or desire to pick up the needles.

This is an evening's work on the Hanging Garden Stole, in mahogany JaggerSpun Zephyr. Last week, I decided I wanted to knit a shawl for a friend's birthday present (the big four-oh). Unfortunately, I've left it too late and even with the usual excellent service provided by the Woolly Workshop [yarn ordered and delivered in four days, including a bank holiday], there is no way I am going to meet the deadline next week. Still, time pressures apart, I'm very much enjoying this project; the pattern is beautifully structured and you don't have to knit far before you see stunning results. The border is simple garter stitch which is knit together with the body, so there are no worries about running out of yarn. Speaking of which, the Zephyr suits this pattern and construction perfectly, and although you can't tell from the picture, the gauge and drape feel just right to me.

Apart from being ill, it's been a wonderful break. But it's back to work tomorrow, heigh-ho, heigh-ho, back to stress and pressure and deadlines and demands. But I am full of good resolve and positive thoughts for the year ahead. Happy new year to everyone, and all the best for a peaceful and happy 2008.

Winding down

2007-12-24T01:23:00.000Z

Had a marvellous time last week at the IKL Christmas party, with much party food, music and wine. I arrived as the party was in full swing, just in time for the secret santa hand-out, and although I shamefully failed to bring a present, I was the lucky recipient of The Friday Night Knitting Club, which I can honestly say I have been wanting to read for some time. Best of all, so many people turned up, including some faces I hadn't seen for a while [hello to Jenni and Ester /wave], and it was great to catch up with every one. I still can't believe how many people managed to fit into that shop.

There has been a lot of other seasonal partying recently, but really for the past month or so, work has been ridiculously busy and stressful [and surprisingly rewarding]. With only one working day left, the IKL party was the start of my winding-down [heh, geddit?], and after everyone had gone, I stayed late, late into the early hours of the morning chatting with Gerard and Craig [sorry boys for keeping you up!].

So much has happened since I last posted; the UK Stitch n Bitch day, Melissa's birthday, Lynsey's career move to LYS sales assistant, Jenni's physical move out of London, a month-long visit from my cat, a fantastic Crowded House in concert and all the other little personal highs and lows............. that I just do not have time to write about. But I can show you some knitting! [Apologies for the photos, lighting has been poor of late.]

First WIP is the Endpaper Mitts in Rowan 4ply Soft. I really love this purple and green combination, but I don't think it works here, as the colours just seem to blend into each other.

I knit the first two thirds of this mitt holding each colour in a different hand, but I didn't like the result; it isn't that clear in the photo, but there is a bit of puckering which I hope will disappear after blocking. I am now using the one hand to switch between each yarn, and although more fiddly, it definitely produces a neater result [although arguably the colours do not "pop out" as much, but that's another story].

Almost an FO: just the grafting to do on a pair of socks in LL Shepherd Sock in the Jungle Stripe colourway. This picture was taken in the glow of a side lamp, so the colours aren't true, the green is actually more grass or pea than olive. I love the thicker stripes on the heel. Wish they were like that all over.

Finally, another WIP, the Flower Basket Shawl in Posh Yarn Eva. I love, love, love this yarn, 50% cashmere, 50% silk, and feels like butter.

The pattern itself is so pretty, but so simple, and I flew through the pattern as specified in three days. However, it is clear from the various beautiful examples on Ravelry, that the specs are for a small shoulder shawl. The photo here shows the shawl with an extra repeat [but without the edging], and even in its unblocked state, is still too small. I have loads of Eva left, so I shall just continue until it feels right.

Again, the colour in the above photo isn't quite right, so here's an earlier picture taken in what passes for daylight these days, and below another showing one skein of the Eva wound up. Yes, I know this isn't a particularly interesting photo, but this was my first attempt at using my new ball winder bought from IKL a few weeks ago, and as such, is an exciting and momentous event which should be recorded appropriately.

The festivities start today with Christmas Eve lunch with friends, then I'm off to the Kentish coast to spend Christmas with the family and cat. To keep me sane, I have packed a couple of UFOs and will hopefully have something to show at the end of it. In the meantime, I wish you a very joyous and peaceful Christmas. Season's greetings to one and all.

See you on Saturday!

2007-11-08T23:24:00.000Z

Ally Pally and purnkple yarn

2007-10-21T20:36:00.003+01:00

I know. It's been a while.

It's not that I haven't been knitting these past couple of months - I have. But I just don't seem to have anything to show for it. With just one short side of the border left to do, the Melon scarf sits in hibernation, while indecision continues to paralyse me. In the meantime I've started a new lace project, the Myrtle Leaf shawl, using Jaggerspun Zephyr in a deep plum, but there isn't much point showing you that either, since I'm switching to a cashmere, so that's effectively just a big swatch then!

Thank you for all the nice comments about the Print o' the Wave. I absolutely love this stole and have worn her a lot in my overly air-conditioned office. In fact, another reason for not blogging has been because I haven't really finished the last post, and won't do so until I've put up the specs and a final picture of the stole in all her unblocked glory. However, this may not happen for a couple of weeks yet, so I've decided to move on for now, and when I finally post a picture, I'll link it for those of you who want to see it.

While I may not have any knitting to show you, I do have plenty of yarn. First, the latest instalment of Sundara's Petals Collection, a skein of merino in Poppy, a rich burgundy, together with a sock pattern and another pretty card.

Then there is some more Zephyr, intended for the Myrtle Leaf, but now consigned to stash.

A few weeks ago, I scoured the internet looking for pink and green sock yarn, and found two that seemed to fit the bill. First, this Bluefaced Leicester from Fyberspates in the

colourway Flower Garden, which is green, purple and pink, even prettier in real life, and is now being knit into a pair of Dublin Bay socks [pdf].

By contrast, I was very disappointed by the Socks That Rock's Socktopus colourway. At the top of this picture, you can see quite a lot of brown [taupe?], not to my liking. Having said that, looking again at BMFA's website, their colours in the image are completely true. Mea culpa, it was clearly wishful thinking that led me to hope the brown was more salmon pink. Still, it's STR, right? Gotta be grateful to get my hands on the stuff.

I'm late in blogging about this year's Ally Pally, but clearly some mention must be made! First up, my purchases:

Naturally, I had to visit the Fyberspates stand, and of course, I picked up another skein of pink and green. This is in fact a different colourway; there are just the two colours and they are both richer than the first skein. I really do think Jenny has an eye for colour; there was a skein of cashmere [I think?] in a beautiful, deep wine colour, and I am simply kicking myself for not buying it.

From Get Knitted some Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Jungle Stripe. I've been after this colourway for some time, but it's always been out of stock on the GK website, so naturally I pounced on it as soon as I saw it.

[Ok, that's enough of the green and pirnkple yarn. Mission accomplished, I think.]

Other purchases were the Knit Picks Options set [hee] also from GK, a shade card from Jamiesons's, DB's Baby Cashmerino 2 and a charming baby jumper pattern from Laughing Hens.

We also visited some new stands - or new to me at least. Blogless Lynsey was particularly taken by the qiviut [click and scroll down for the fantastic story of the arctic musk ox], but couldn't decide on a project for it. She did buy some laceweight from the House of Hemp and a gorgeous wine coloured skein from the Natural Dye Studio [I have to say, NDS was a real find, I absolutely loved all her colours so it's wonderful that they are soon to be made available at I Knit London].

Lynsey and I hit the show around lunchtime, walked up and down all the aisles, visited many stalls (some of them three times), saw some of the Knit a River project and signed our support to end water poverty, made happy purchases and collected even more cards and leaflets. Luckily, I'm interested in a number of different crafts, so the question of whether there was more or less yarn this year than previously doesn't really bother me, and I found much at Ally Pally to inspire me to pick up old-forgotten crafts or try new ones. There were also many beautiful pieces in the exhibition and elsewhere for sale. We finally ended up in the Palm Court, drinking pink champage and watching Breakfast at Tiffany's [love that orange cat] and Roman Holiday [bizarrely, Lynsey was wearing Audrey Hepburn socks. Seriously.] until Gerard joined us. After more champagne, we met up with Craig in Vauxhall, and had dinner at Pico's, a lively and clearly popular Portuguese restaurant. It was a thoroughly fantastic day spent with lovely people.

Finally, in case you were wondering what the pretty case at the very top was: I have a weakness for small boxes and containers and the like, and simply couldn't resist this totally unecessary and utterly charming Cath Kidson sewing kit.

OK, that's enough for now, this post is wordy enough. If you've made it to the end, thank you. Next time I post, I'll hopefully have some knitting to show!

Print o' the Wave

2007-09-22T11:58:00.000+01:00

2007-08-26T17:52:00.000+01:00

Don't you just love bank holiday weekends? It's been a week of late nights for me, and much as I enjoy going out, it's been glorious to spend three days relaxing at home.

Sorry for not pinning the shawl out for these photos, but the light was a bit hit-and-miss today, and I had to grab the opportunity as soon as it presented itself!

So this is where I am with the melon shawl from VLT. After several days ignoring it, hoping it would miraculously grow in width and length, I took my head out of the sand, made some basic yardage calculations, added a few more repeats to the centre panel, and then - gulp - cut the yarn and started on the border.

But the combination of garter stitch and sea silk was too clumsy, so after only a few repeats I ripped the border out, and replaced it with the smaller Vandyke edging. This border is used in quite a few of the patterns in VLT, knits up quickly, looks pretty and so far I am very, very pleased with it.

The Vandyke is a 12-row repeat, rather than the original 8-row border, so some adjustment had to be made on the corner. It does actually look better when pinned out, so I'm trusting in the miracle of blocking. What I don't like, in fact what I really, really DISlike is the final repeat which doesn't get tied by the melon stitch. I don't understand why the pattern specifies this, but I think it looks kinda ugly.

Also raining on my parade is the fact that with a smaller border, I'm going to have quite a lot of yarn left. So, I'm in half a mind to undo the edging and add another column of faggoting to make the shawl wider. But then, I'm not sure it wouldn't spoil the pattern. Oh, what to do, what to do?

It was another fab I Knit London meet this week, this time at the Albert public house in Victoria. I was surprised by how many turned up despite the incessant rain. There was also a strong US contingent, and there was a lot of laughing at the end of the evening with some healthy debate on the different merits of UK and US telly. [As an aside, I've just finished season 3 of the Gilmore Girls on DVD, and am SO unhappy about Jess and Rory splitting up *sob*, I actually don't want to watch season 4!] A few days before, I'd cast on Tahoe in DB's Cathay, as an antidote to all this lace, and the mindless stocking stitch makes it the perfect project for pub knitting.

Following an unfortunate incident on our splendid public transport [ha], the Hedera socks have bitten the dust - just as I had memorised the pattern too! I'd only got as far as the end of the first cuff, so there is still the majority of the skein left for some other project, but for now, it goes into stash. Which leaves time for a new sock project. Oh wait, I ALREADY HAVE two on the needles. [I could have done with a sock at the cinema the other night - the new Bourne film, the beautiful locations, action scenes, the car chases, visually it's all fabulous, but even for the standards of the genre, there was no story at all. Really. At all. ]

Talking of IKL, the boys are throwing a party next Sunday at the Vauxhall Griffin to celebrate the shop's first anniversary and it sounds like fun, hope to see you there.

2007-08-12T23:11:00.000+01:00

Last weekend I went to the Innocent Village Fête in Regent's Park. It was an absolutely scorching day, beautiful blue skies, not a cloud in sight, the first fine weekend after three months of rain. There was an impressive array of food, not the usual dodgy hot dog stands, but delicious foods from all over the world, with a strong emphasis on ethical and eco-friendly sources. There was music, maypole dancing and craft stalls. I love people-watching and it was wonderful to see everyone happy, relaxed and friendly (so not what I'm used to in London), never better demonstrated than at the 21st centrury barn dance, where complete strangers - young and old - danced with each other for hours. I was itching to take part myself, but um, perhaps next year. A very pleasant day was rounded off with tapas and sangria at Jamon Jamon.

I have tried to attend a group once a week. In the past month, I've been to Angelknits twice [albeit the first time I had no knitting with me!]. I haven't been to the group for many, many months and it was nice to catch up with the regulars. During the summer, the New Rose Inn is a great place to knit, since the windows are large and there is lots of natural light till late. And of course, this week saw another great I Knit London meet at the Bricklayers' Arms.

On the knitting front, well, there's been some good and some bad. At my last visit to Angelknits, I made another mistake on the Forest Canopy Shawl. At home, in exasperation and with two glasses of wine behind me, I ripped it off the the needles, pinned it and my earlier attempt, took photos of both these wretched pieces with my phone [sorry], and since then they have both been lying on the floor. I'm not sure whether I'm going to attempt the FCP again; in any event, I still have almost three skeins of the beautiful Sophia cashmere to knit a shawl for a friend.

Speaking of Posh Yarns, last weekend, one of their pink packages arrived containing two skeins of Eva in Dryad. *sigh* This picture doesn't come close to reflecting the colour of this gorgeous yarn, but it is Just. Beautiful. Ideally, I would have used this for the melon pattern shawl.

Ah, the melon shawl, well, I've finished the centre panel which, with a few extra repeats, measures about 48" long. This has taken one skein of the sea silk, and on this basis, the second skein should easily cover a few more repeats and the border. But I'm at a standstill, agonising over whether I should increase the length or the width.

With no FCP to take on the road, I've reverted to socks for on-the-go knitting. I've been using Sundara's Blue Grape Hyacinth to knit Hedera. It's taken a while for me to get into this pattern, and to be honest, there have been many times I thought it might go the same way as the FCP, but this week I really looked at the pattern, and the yarnovers et al in relation to the centre stitch and something clicked, and now I'm just speeding along. Pictures to follow at some point.

It's been a dreadful week both at work and at home. 1) Some lunatic abused me in the street, and then called the police when I confronted him! 2) Since July, I've taken up running again, and this week I really noticed some benefits, so imagine my dismay to learn that I AM PUTTING ON WEIGHT [and yes, I understand about building muscle, but according to the various means of measurement, I am obese, you'd think I would lose a pound or two first]. 3) More importantly, I have managed to fall out with a number of people close to my heart; my companion, my best friend, my sister and my parents, each one on different issues. It's been a lonely week.

Melon pattern shawl

2007-07-28T16:40:00.000+01:00

This is the melon pattern shawl from Victorian Lace Today after 28 repeats, almost halfway through the centre panel. It's been an easy ride so far; the stitch pattern is deceptively simple to learn and uniform enough so that any mistake is discovered and easily remedied in the next row.

For a laceweight the sea silk seems to be on the thick side, and finding the right gauge proved a little tricky. The piece shown in my last post was knit on 4mm needles and was too loose, so I ripped it. This attempt is made using 3.5mm, and I'm much happier with how it looks now.

The problem of course, is that even in this fledgling state, the shawl seems too narrow [about 12" across - eek]. I really ought to increase the stitch count to make up for the adjustment in size, but I have absolutely no idea how far my two skeins will go, and if I've learned anything from the PotW [yep, still unblocked], it's that the border takes far more yarn than you'd imagine, and then some. So I'm playing it safe for now and following the instructions as specified.

I Knit London's meet this week at the Freemason's Arms was another busy affair, again with lots of new faces amongst the usual suspects. It was a fun evening, and even the pub's manager was keen for the group to come again. Having abandoned the Forest Canopy Shawl I've been knitting - and endlessly ripping - since May, I cast on again with fresh yarn, and carried on working on it the next evening at IKL's film night [Little Miss Sunshine - so, so nice]. I don't know why I have struggled so much with the FCP, the lace is the easiest I've come across and the cashmere is a dream to work with, but somehow I was making mistake after mistake after sodding mistake. This time round, I've moreorless managed to get to the same stage as before without too much trauma. Since it's for a friend, I just hope the good karma continues.

After the film and when everyone else had left, the boys and I sat on their fabulous Chesterfield, stuffed ourselves with cookies and crisps, and played around on Ravelry, and chatted about the first official UK Stitch 'n Bitch Day. It sounds like it's going to be huge fun, so if you're interested, keep checking the IKL blog for details.

IKL and stash enhancement

2007-07-14T18:31:00.000+01:00

It was a particularly excellent evening at the BFI on Wednesday night. I had imagined we would be knitting in the cafe on the riverside, but in fact we were located in a rather classy bar area in the new annex between the NT and the BFI. We sat on the most fabulous sofas and armchairs, and it really was the perfect setting for knitting and chatting, except when they dimmed the lights, and then it was only perfect for chatting. Heh.

It's always good to catch up with the I Knit London boys and the usual suspects, plus this week there were a lot of new faces or recent additions to the group, all of them really friendly and I do hope they all come again. Gerard was knitting a sock with some yarn dyed by long-time IKLer Jon [check out his site to see more of his dyeing projects]. I myself had yet another disastrous night of ripping [a subject for a future post], but despite this frustration, the evening was an absolute blast, the only sour note was that I had left my purse at work, and had to rely completely on Gerard to refill my glass. For shame.

It's been a good week for the stash. First, on Tuesday, I received the first instalment of Sundara's 2007 Petals Collection, which I've been longing to see, and it did not disappoint. The package contained a 350 yard skein of soft, soft merino sock yarn in blue grape hyacinth, a pretty picture of said grape hyacinth and a sock pattern. My rubbish camera has spectactularly failed to capture the colourway, the skein is predominantly blue, but it has more purpley tints than is evident here. It's a lovely package, the only thing is that I don't really wear blue, so I guess I'll be knitting these socks for someone else!

Then, on Thursday a package from k1 yarnsarrived, this time containing two skeins of Handmaiden Sea Silk. I've been wanting to get my hands on this yarn for the longest time, and I am so glad I did. It is gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous, although I admit, I'm not that keen on the moss colour. As soon you can see, I didn't wait for better light, and as soon as I'd finished photographing the skein, I wound it into a ball and cast on.

2007-07-09T23:39:00.000+01:00

Gosh, I was in a bad mood this evening when I got home, so I grabbed a book and took myself out for dinner. A glass of wine later, and I was giggling away.

[Yes, I do realise I am the last person on the planet to read this book.]

Then, walking back home, I ran into my favourite neighbour. I don't know his name, but ginger and I are on very friendly terms, and he is always partial to a stroke and a fuss. [He did actually sit and pose photogenically for the camera, but I was too slow.]

A book and some cat-love, there really is no better remedy.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GERARD!
If you've been reading the I Knit London blog, you'll know that both Gerard and Craig have been insanely busy over the past couple of months, so I hope today was celebrated appropriately! I've not been to an IKL group for weeks, so am really looking forward to the meet on Wednesday. It's a particularly interesting venue this week, the British Film Institute on the South Bank, in case you're in town and fancy it.

2007-07-07T18:19:00.000+01:00

Thank you SO much for the good wishes about my impending auntydom, I was very touched, and for the baby pattern suggestions. They all look like excellent recommendations, and I know mum-to-be will love them.

So I've not blogged for a while, it's been an incredibly busy couple of weeks. On the few nights I have actually been at home, I've been too tired to do anything other than watch telly and catch up on the latest goings-on in blogland. Oh, and Ravelry.

I am completely hooked on Ravelry. Not because it makes organising and showcasing your WIPs and FOs easy [which it does], not because it provides the opportunity to be inspired by craftmanship and talent from all over the worldwide web [which it does], but because it is the BEST resource library. As one who likes to research the web for examples of a particular yarn or pattern, Ravelry is a complete godsend. Just today, I was thinking of a shawl I'm considering for a gift later in the year, I just typed it in to Ravelry, and page after page of WIPs and FOs were loaded for my review. Then I tapped in the yarn I wanted to use, again, pages of instances of the yarn in projects or in stash were there for me to see [it was a huge thrill for me to find my PotW in the pattern and Zephyr searches]. And that's just the tip of the iceberg - there is so much to see and do, it's a fabulous site, so if you're still waiting for your invitation [as of this weekend, there are 9,802 on the waiting list] be patient, it's worth it.

Speaking of the PotW, with the help of the Gilmore Girls season 1 I finished knitting the border last weekend, and today I got around to grafting the ends. There are still some ends to weave in, but I'll see to those after blocking, which I hope to do sometime this week. There, I've said it out loud, publicly committed myself to blocking the stole. See the projects in the sidebar? In addition to the PotW, four of them are finished, as in there is NO KNITTING left to be done, but they have all been sitting around for months waiting to be blocked. But today, I made ready two huge towels and the (as yet unused) dressing wires from Heirloom Knitting. No excuses left.

With the PotW finished, I was at a real loss today for something to knit. I had my next main project picked out some time ago, but am still undecided about the yarn. So today I worked on a sock, but it was all rather unsatisfying; I do like to have a big project to work on at home, particularly now to accompany me on Gilmore Girls season 2!

Dear me, this is a tedious post, isn't it? I'll stop now, just wanted to say hello and thanks again for the nice words. Knitters are the BEST people.

Cool Aunt Phoebe

2007-06-23T23:31:00.000+01:00

This week I've been looking at baby patterns for some charity knitting, and wishing someone close to me would have a baby, just so I could knit them something lovely. Wishful thinking of course, seeing as my generation of friends and family either already have children or are unlikely now to have any.

And then last night, I was having dinner with S, and she told me she was pregnant. Absolutely extraordinary timing, and so completely unexpected.

Congratulations S and A! I'm going to be an aunty!* Baby is due in the new year, so it's early days, and I'm the only one in the family who knows for now, but I CANNOT wait till this marvellous news is out, it will impact the family in ways I cannot even attempt to describe here.

And of course, the knitting opportunities! Mum-to-be has told me to knit away and I've already been scouring the web for the best baby pattern books!

* You know that scene in Friends, where pregnant Phoebe is having the mood swings, and the girls tell her that she gets to be cool Aunt Phoebe! That will be me, cool Aunty Elly.

Ravelry

2007-06-18T23:58:00.000+01:00

Just as I had given up waiting, tonight I received my invitation to Ravelry. Hoorah! I headed straight over to have a look, but you can't stop at just one look! It's such fun, but guess who can't come out to play till the weekend? Work to do, friends to see, shawl to finish. Pah.

My head hurts

2007-06-16T15:44:00.000+01:00

A lot.

But first, thank you SO MUCH for your lovely comments on the PotW. Each one made me ridiculously happy, and it's always nice to hear from friends, old and new.

I've had loads of knitting time since the last post, and quite frankly, the stole should have been finished a long time ago, but there's a project at work that is hanging over me like a heavy, dark cloud and knitting, reading, any activity that doesn't bring me closer to the end of the project just fills me with dreadful guilt. Absurd, I know. [What's even more absurd, is that I've procrastinated so much on this project, that there's not much progress there either, so lose/lose all round really.]

Anyway, I've turned three corners and am about halfway down the last side. No pictures, since it doesn't look much different from the last time, but there have been many PotWs finished in blogland in recent weeks, and since a number of knitelly's visitors come via a PotW search, I'd like to point you to these beautiful examples at Tangled Creations, PoMo Golightly, Omly Crafts, Posh Yarn [scroll down to June 7th] and DropOne, who's already started another one!

Clearly, at some point, I managed to suppress the guilt long enough to give the old blog a bit of a clean and a slap of paint. I've wanting to update it since Tarilyn added her daisies and made it look so easy. There's still some html tinkering to do, but I think it looks less oppressive now.

As if not being able to knit with a clear conscience isn't bad enough, I've also missed a few I Knit London meets. I went a couple of weeks ago to the meet at the Crown and Two Chairman, where not a lot of knitting went on, but it was nice to chat and catch up on the news. And last night I made it to Men Who Knit night at the shop. Some of us then went to the pub, where I drank an obscene amount of wine. With only nuts for dinner (but they were goooood nuts). Boys, I'm so sorry if I was loud and awful last night, but I did really have a good time. Which brings me to my hurty head, and if it ever stops raining, I might take the Yarn Harlot and my sorry backside out for a gentle walk.

Print o' the Wave update

2007-05-28T14:50:00.000+01:00

This is the current state of PotW play: the border of one short side and half of one long side complete. Surprisingly, attaching the border turned out to be as simple as everyone had claimed, but it's taken a long time to get here. Long and unhappy and involving ripping.

First of all, in an attempt to increase the width of the shawl, I increased the stitch count of the border, inserting two lines of double faggotting separated by a column of stocking stitch (this [cough] expertise courtesy of much pouring over the back pages of Victorian Lace Today). After a few pattern repeats, I was satisfied that I had achieved my aim, and congratulated myself on my ability to adopt new techniques so successfully.

But with each repeat, I disliked the result more and more. The additional columns did indeed increase the width, and were perfectly nice to look at, but the hard lines broke up the soft flow of the pattern, and the wave border was too far removed from the centre panel. Time and time again, I looked at the border, tried to imagine it round the entire shawl, and fought the desire to rip.

I also revisited the library of tips I'd accumulated in my research, and of course found a post from the PotW KAL, that perfectly explained why I had more stitches in the eyelet rounds than specified in the pattern. I shoulda just read Eunny's instructions as written. Anyway, it inself, it wasn't too much of a problem, it just required some fudging, but as I got to the first corner, the required fudging on top of the ugliness of the border, well, you can probably see where I'm going with this. I ripped.

Initially, I wanted to rip right back to the centre panel, and pick up 768 border stitches again, as it was SUCH FUN the first time round. But the prospect of losing stitches at the two live ends made me too nervous, so I ripped only the border, counted the stitches on each of the sides and corners, put them on a crude diagram on a spreadsheet and calculated where adjustments were to be made. I then felt comfortable enough to restart the border.

I still wanted to increase the width, but contented myself with one column of double faggotting and an additional two stitches of of stocking stitch at the side of the wave pattern......... and I am really pleased with the result.

Now, did you all notice the large holes at the corner in the first picture? I don't know what the hell went wrong there, but I only noticed them today when I removed some scrap yarn used as a marker. I'm hoping that after blocking and draped around my shoulders, they aren't going to be that visible, otherwise, I foresee some fudging ahead...

It's a bank holiday weekend, and it has rained non-stop. Seriously. Non. Stop. But I don't care, I have the rest of the week off, yipee! That makes nine stress-free days away from the office. On Friday night, I actually fell asleep smiling.

No more exams, EVAH

2007-05-24T02:50:00.001+01:00

For reasons that I won't bore you with, tonight was the first evening in several weeks that I left work without having to continue the day's toil later at home, or dreading the next day. It was such an odd feeling, this light-heartedness, it reminded me of school or university, that feeling on the last day of exams, the knowledge THAT I DIDN'T HAVE TO REVISE EVER AGAIN EVAH,............. or at least until the next semester. Ok, maybe it wasn't quite like that, but really, I was so unexpectedly light-hearted, I didn't quite know what to do with myself, and at such short notice, had no-one to play with. How sad.

Even though I still left a good couple of hours later than the norm, it was a fine evening and I was in a Good Mood. I didn't want to waste it at home. I toyed with the idea of going to I Knit London's group meet, but bizarrely felt a little inadequate with only a sock-in-progress with me. In the end, I treated myself to a couple of glasses of expensive wine al fresco, worked on a geeky personal project on the laptop and knitted on said sock.

Back at home, I had the choice of working on the PotW or winding a skein of the PY Sophia to prepare for swatching. I turned on the telly, and Notting Hill was just about to start. Ok, ok, not the best film in the world, but still one that makes me laugh and makes me cry - in short, the perfect film for me tonight. I reached for the Sophia et voilà, one ball ready for knitting.

Which brings me to the Actual Point of this post: which is that I forgot to say last time how amazing this yarn is. So, so soft; so utterly, gorgeously beautiful to touch. I love this yarn.

2007-05-21T00:26:00.000+01:00

I often wonder what my neighbours think of the constant steam of mostly squishy packages laid at my door. On Friday, one such package in bright, pink plastic was delivered. In fact B found it when he went up to leave some shopping, while I waited in the car, on our way for a quick drink. This time, postie had left it under the doormat, which does little to conceal it from would-be burglars, but presumably allowed one to see beyond the glare of the package! Anyway, B stepped out waving this neon pink package; clearly he has come to understand the importance of uniting me with my yarn as quickly as possible.

Inside the pink plastic was the same colour tissue paper. I refused to expose the yarn to too much pubness, but all this pink made it difficult to see the colour of the yarn, which surrounded by the packaging, seemed apricot, not what I was after at all. Thankfully, the colour is closer to red and is very, very pretty.

Red is a notoriously difficult colour to photograph, and combined with this weekend's poor light, these pictures don't reflect the colour at all well, although this one taken with a flash gives a slight indication of the different hues.

The yarn is Posh Yarn's Sophia, a pure cashmere laceweight, in Red Admiral. For some time, I've been on the look-out for bright red laceweight for a friend's shawl; a few weeks ago, PY had the perfect pillar-box red, but of course it was snapped up by the time I remembered. The Red Admiral is probably not as bright as my friend would like, but I'm still confident that she'll love it.

Another recent delivery was from ColourMart, whose cashmere yarns and service receives only the hightest praise in blogland, forums and lists. This is their sample pack, isn't it good? Enough of each yarn in their range for a decent swatch, against the labels describing them, plus 250 yards of DK cashmere. Once I've got my head around the washing instructions (the yarns are oiled) I definitely hope to be using some of the laceweight in the future.

Finally, on a tenuous knitting-related theme, I took my shiny new iPod, the Nike + attachment (what a fantastic gadget) and Lime and Violet for a brisk walk this week. Back in the day, when I used to run regularly, I would listen to music, but now that I'm so unfit and lacking the motivation and routine, Miss Lime and Miss Violet are the perfect companions, and the thirty minutes not only raced by, but I had so much fun too. This week, I shall be starting a walk/run programme, and with 35 plus back episodes of L&V to catch-up on, am thoroughly looking forward to it!

Cliff walking

2007-05-09T04:12:00.000+01:00

This weekend was a bank holiday weekend, which means, for those of you not familiar with the term, that Monday is a public holiday, a long weekend. On Saturday I drove down to the Kentish coast to visit my father, who left the big smoke a couple of years ago for the wide open spaces and fresh sea air.

Cliff-walking

We had such a fun day. We started with a pot of tea at the National Trust centre on the white cliffs, where I whipped out a sock (appropriately enough, a new pair I'm making for mon père) and knitted quite happily watching the ferries come and go. Then we walked along the cliffs; the sea was quite grey, but as you can see from the photos, everywhere else was beautifully green, and there were pretty wild flowers growing in the chalk, something you definitely don’t see in the city.

Overlooking the docks

We drove westwards along the coast, stopping to eat fish and chips on the beach and feel the calming influence of the sea. Then, in the evening, I accompanied my father to his bowls club for their annual prize-giving ceremony followed by a dinner and dance. I am extraordinarily proud of him, not only for receiving a medal in something he has only picked up in the past year or so, but for assimilating into and making new friends in the local community.

During the day I had felt quite sleepy, but we had put it down to the sea air. However, in the evening, I started to have brief giddy moments, and when I drove back to London later, I got lost coming off the motorway, a trip I have made countless times, but my normally reliable sense of direction failed me completely, and I took several wrong turnings and for a while drove further away from London, before I finally got back on track. Turns out I wasn’t feeling too well, and I spent the rest of the weekend in bed. On Tuesday, I called in to say I would work from home that day, but as it turned out, I slept until mid-afternoon! Anyway, all this rambling is to explain why, despite a luxurious four-day weekend, I have no knitting to show you, because a) my camera batteries are dead and b) it's remarkable how sleeping for three days and nights can ruin your productivity.

For the record, I have picked up all 768 stitches of PotW and completed the eyelet rounds, in so doing, increasing the stitch count. This does not appear to accord with Eunny’s instructions, but I have read and re-read them till my head hurts and I still don't see how you can NOT increase the number, so I shall forge ahead and start the border. Hmm, I see much fudging ahead. [This dreadful picture was taken with my phone, and the colour is way, way off the deep ruby red in real life.]

Finally, when I opened the door this evening for some pizza delivery [!], I found a package from Amazon containing the iPod I'd ordered on Friday. It was a wonderful, marvellous surprise, and I'm very excited and now looking forward to going back to work tomorrow to start downloading (since it will take forever and a day on my home dial-up).

Actually, I'm writing as though it's Tuesday night, it is in fact Wednesday morning, and I need to be up in three or four hours, so I'll sign off for now, and hopefully return soon with some actual knitting content!

Suck it up

2007-04-30T00:01:00.000+01:00

The Americans have a phrase ...... suck it up. I'm not even going to pretend to know where it comes from, but it very neatly describes my PotW knitting activity today.

Having heeded the advice of others and convinced myself to keep to the pattern's specs, I read mid-week Little.Yellow.Different.Better's post, and was inspired to add another eight repeats to the PotW, making a total of 42 repeats. Then I did the math [another fabulous phrase from across the pond] for picking up the additional stitches and marked the long rows into eights to make the whole exercise easier. Today, I sucked it up, and picked up the stitches for the border. I am embarrassed to admit that the calculation and picking up took far, far longer than the couple of hours I had anticipated, and thank goodness it was a good telly day! (double Grey's Anatomy, CSIs New York, Miami and Vegas - just some of what accompanied me on this journey), and yet it still isn't finished, since the last part involves knitting from the original, provisional cast on, and I am too nervous to do this in poor light (it now being close to midnight). I have an absolute horror of removing the waste yarn, the anchor of the entire project, and watching all the stitches unravelling.

So, no pictures today because it's too dark now, and besides, it doesn't look that pretty right now anyway.

For one reason or another, it's been an extemely stressful week at work, and I wouldn't have survived if not for some levity in the evenings. On Monday, I joined Gerard, Craig, and Esther to take part in the record-breaking largest coconut orchestra performance in Trafalgar Square. A completely ridiculous endeavour, and yet huge fun, followed by the most sublime Thai dinner.

On Thursday, I made it to film night at I Knit London to see A Chorus Line. Ah, there were tears, some singing, some wine.......... some sewing up of those ruddy blue squares for Knit a River. I even managed to bring a couple of bags of squares home with me to sew up.

Also coming home with me were the latest Vogue Knitting and Rowan 41. Having looked at VK properly this weekend, I'm none too impressed; the patterns are dowdy and the models and styling belong to the eighties. As for Rowan 41, the styling is beautiful, and I love lots of the designs, but realistically there's only one which I want to add to my to do list: Maris in Rowan Calmer, a lovely spring/summer cardigan. Trouble is, I am not a big fan of knitting with cotton, although I've seen lots of knitbloggers wax lyrical about Calmer. Anyway, looking at all the spring designs and with PotW's end in sight, I'm also inclined to start Debbie Bliss's ribbon-edged cardigan again (still love, love that pattern).

2007-04-23T03:47:00.000+01:00

Well I missed film night at I Knit London, but I did make it to Wednesday night's meet at the Crown and Two Chairmen, where I cast on Miss Lambert's shawl from VLT, using my new lace Addis and parcel string for waste yarn. Alas, the combination of dark yarn, chatting and alcohol meant for an unsuccessful start, and I spent most of the evening casting on again and again and again..... until I gave up and worked on my Lucia socks instead, which incidentally are no longer going to be Hedera, since the yarn is too variegated for the lacy pattern. Anyway, an excellent evening was enjoyed by all, with sausage, egg and rhubarb (!) and as ever, Craig has written up an entertaining account of it here.

This weekend, I have been working on PotW, and to my surprise, have completed the centre panel's 34 repeats. In the photo, it is at 33 repeats and measures 12" across and approximately 44" long. I have since added the final repeat and have put it aside to think about what to do next. I'm really tempted to make it longer, but then I remind myself that it will never be wide enough for a wrap, so is it worth the effort? Didn't I say before that I was going to keep to the pattern's specifications, so that I could use it as a yardstick [or should that be yarnstick?]. To be honest, I'm a bit nervous about attaching the border, so I'll probably end up keeping to the specs this time to get a feel for how it works, and save the additional rows and stitches and calculations for PotW no 2.

[The light was not very good today, that sheet is actually white, not grey.]

Addi Lace

2007-04-17T20:16:00.000+01:00

Ooo, ooh, look what I came home to last night. Addi Turbo Lace needles, FOUR sets of them.

[Ok, so it's not exactly a crock of gold, but it was late when I got home, and I was tired and depressed and sad, and none of these feelings were related, so I was all kinds of down and it was a welcome little bit of cheer. Package at door, yay! New needles, yay! Addi Turbo Lace, yay! Ya gotta find the happy where you can.]

Of course, I opened a set to examine the needles and cable, but didn't test them, so can't comment on them yet. I don't think I'll swap the straights on PotW mid-project, but I will probably use the Addis on my next lace project, which by the way, I'm going to have to start pretty soon. Remember I wanted to knit a shawl for a friend of mine last year? Well, her wedding came, no shawl. A milestone birthday came, um.... no shawl. Today, she resigned from her job for a change of direction. Seriously, I have to knit that shawl!

_____________
Edited to add: Oops, forgot to say that I ordered the needles from Colorsong Yarn in the US, and received them in just over a week. Fantastic service and no shipping costs.

Everybody cut footloose!

2007-04-15T23:51:00.000+01:00

For a few weeks now, I Knit London have been running a film night, and this week I finally managed to make it. Well, I made it to the shop, but unfortunately with only twenty minutes of the film to go. Next week's showing will be Footloose, which I went to see in the summer of 1984, celebrating the end of A' levels. It's not a film that ranks in my list of favourites, but of course, if I come across it on the telly, invariably I find myself singing along and tapping my foot, watching to the very end, remembering a [my own] more innocent time.

Anyway, as I said, I didn't get to see much of the film, but afterwards, it was nice to catch up with Gerard and Craig, who I hadn't seen since an IKL meet in Alibi last month. I also had a long look around the shop. The stock has really grown since I was last there. Gerard showed me some lovely cashmere just in, I forget the name, but remember it was from Devon. Anyway, if you haven't been there for a while, or at all (!), go pay the boys a visit, take your knitting and sit on the Chesterfield. It is a real knitters' haven.

Whilst there, I bought some DPNs. I've been using 2.75mm Pony circulars for my current on-the-go sock, and although the experience hasn't been as bad as with the lace, it still makes for uncomfortable knitting, but now with my DPNs, at least I have managed to get as far as finishing the rib.

I also bought some more Cherry Tree Hill Supersock in Tropical Storm, this time for me, I think. Sorry for the useless picture; my laptop which I use to store my images, has died on me, and I'm using my work laptop, which, given that I work in the glamourous world of accountancy, unsurprisingly does not have sophisticated photo imaging software on it.

In other news, I have turned the heel on each of the stripy socks, and am shaping the gusset on one, and working the foot of the other. As for the Print o' the Wave, I initially thought I would work one 12-row repeat every night, the reality is that I tend to leave it to the long, bright weekend hours. I am now up to 20 out of 34 repeats in the centre panel. No pictures to show on either of these projects, since they just look longer than the last time.

Everybody cut footloose!

Print o' the Wave

2007-04-08T23:53:00.000+01:00

So I mentioned that I was knitting Eunny Jang’s Print o’ the Wave stole. This is a Big Deal. For the longest time, I have wanted to knit this, I’ve googled and visited every mention of PotW on the world wide web, followed the Yahoo Groups knitalong and more recently, the French knitalong. [Hey Eunny, if ever you need someone to catalogue all the references, I’m your gal. Got 'em all right here.]

So, why did it take so long to start? Well, for one thing, yarn choice was particularly difficult. I’d never used laceweight before and didn’t know what qualities to look for, other than being, um, fine. After much research on blogs and forums, I finally settled on Jaggerspun Zephyr, and early in the new year, four balls of Zephyr in plum and ruby arrived at my door.

Then there were gauge issues. Following general wisdom, I tried bamboo circulars, but the 3.5mm Addis produced a too holey fabric, and the 3.25mm Ponys produced something not very different and in addition were simply dreadful to use. The join between cable and needle is not suited for the combination of tight tension and fine yarn, and I had to ensure at all times, that the stitches remained on the needles. If a stitch moved onto the cable, there was no way I could get it back onto the needle again, and the piece was wasted. In addition, I felt that bamboos produced a looser tension than my norm, and I like the knitted bits in lace to be dense, not holey (if that makes sense). In the end I used 3.25mm metal straights, which so far have proved to be the best solution all round. Actually, I am awaiting delivery of some Addi Turbos in 3.25mm, and yesterday I ordered 3 sets of the new Addi Lace circulars in 3.0mm, 3.25mm and 3.5mm from Colorsong, but I prefer straights, so will probably stick with them for this project.

Another challenge was the provisional cast-on. I read Eunny’s lace tutorials, but to be honest, they made me more anxious about gauge. Real, practical help came from the ever fabulous KnittingHelp.com, and due to the number of times I had to cast on for this project, I did indeed get some real practice.

In the midst of all this research and experimentation, there was Victorian Lace Today. As soon as I heard about this wonderful book and its emphasis on rectangular shawls and wraps, I put off starting PotW until I could see VLT for myself. As it turned out, it took four months till I got my own copy, yep count 'em, one, two, three, FOUR months, and yes, as soon as it arrived, I swatched for a couple of the patterns. However, in the end I decided that the Zephyr was probably best used for the PotW. [I do love VLT and have already earmarked two designs for future projects, hence the order for more Addis Turbos and Lace.]

So, a couple of weeks ago, I cast on and started again in earnest. The first few repeats were, in a nutshell, a nightmare. Reading from a chart for the first time, using such a fine yarn for the first time, the ill-advised combination of metal needles and tiny stitches, all this conspired to make the first few repeats a slow and painful experience, with much ripping and reknitting and swearing. Usually, I would know at the end of the row if I had made a mistake, but there were also occasions when I would have to unknit a few rows of small, tight sk2pos. Each time I reached the end of the row with the correct pattern and number of stitches, the relief was overwhelming. In short, I hated every moment, and often questioned my sanity for persisting.

Happily, that was all part of the learning experience, and soon I began to have a "feel" for the pattern and see where a stitch was incorrectly placed. My errors became fewer and more quickly rectified, and as my confidence has grown, so have the repeats got easier and quicker. The picture to the left, taken earlier this afternoon, is mostly the result of two weekends' work. This is the centre panel; there is a border to be attached as well, and I understand that blocking transforms lace knitting, but clearly, not even an agressive blocking is going to render this baby into anything other than a wide scarf. (For perspective, the needle is 14" long). When casting on this final version, I decided to stick to the number of stitches as specified in the pattern, even though I knew that it would turn out narrower and shorter. Since I am so new to laceweight, I thought I would knit this as specified so that the finished object could serve as my yardstick for future lace projects, a reference point to calculate measurements and modifications.

Although I am now quite familiar with the pattern and am speeding along, I still need to concentrate, and I can't work on it without good lighting. So, for mindless knitting there are the stripey socks, and this is what they looked like earlier this afternoon. I'm trying to do both socks moreorless at the same time, ie at each turning point on the first sock, I'll stop and catch up on the second.

In London, we have been blessed this Easter with unusually fine weather with constant sunshine, and I have had a lovely and relaxed three days so far shutting out the world and just knitting, internet surfing and lots of telly. Tomorrow, Monday, is the last day of this long weekend, and I will probably have to eshew the knitting to focus on some essential life stuff. Pah. Wishing you all a very happy
Easter, and I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.

2007-03-29T01:26:00.000+01:00

There is currently much debate on a certain knitting list about the niceties of naming and shaming bad suppliers (dear reader, if you're in the UK, you'll know what I am talking about). The topic has been hotly argued from both sides, with terms such as libel and freedom of speech looming large.

My observations:

1) I have dealt with a number of online suppliers (as well as bricks-and mortar shops) in the UK. Of these, there are two where I have not only experienced poor service but shockingly bad customer relations. I am full of admiration for those brave enough to start their own business, but I will NOT accept lies, misleading information or refusal to communicate. Your poor attitude repels me and ensures I never consider buying from you again.

2) Without wanting to perpetuate the stereotype, knitters and other crafters are positive-minded, supportive people. Our tolerance levels are high. Frankly, I am amazed that it has taken this long for this subject to be discussed in an open forum. But, surely the fact that a significant number of said knitters have voiced their opinions, and thereafter defended their right to do so, surely this is indicative of the extreme and unacceptable frustration felt and the seriousness and longevity of the problem. I am not for one moment advocating rudeness or personal attacks, but factual representation of the position can only help suppliers and customers alike and hopefully identify the steps necessary to improve the situation.

3) I have no desire to give airtime to rubbish suppliers, instead I'd like to list my favourites:

The Woolly Workshop
Laughing Hens
Web of Wool
Get Knitted
Posh Yarns
K1 Yarns

Each of these sites offers a different product, has its own individual identity and outlook, and each is run by talented, hard-working women. Against the backdrop of angry emails and subsequent reprimands, I searched online at the weekend for a particular sock yarn, ordered it from Web of Wool on Saturday, received an order confirmation the same day, a despatch email on Monday and came home on Tuesday to a delightful package. From online search to cast-on = three days (including the weekend).

This is Regia Mini Ringel in 5220 (green and blue), on new bamboo DPNs for socks for B.

In other knitty news, I still have some FOs to show you, but it's all about finding the time to block, photograph (in the right light, heh), and upload. In the meantime, in addition to the Regia socks, I have experimented with some of the patterns from Victorian Lace Today, cast on Eunny's Print o' the Wave stole in ~~tacking thread~~ Jaggerspun Zephyr and Cookie A's Hedera socks in PY Lucia. I'll post about these properly when there is something more substantial to show!

I have also joined Sundara's Petal Collection. There are a lot of sock clubs about, but I love the look of this one, and I'm so looking forward to the first lot of sock yarn.

Finally, a finished pair of socks

2007-03-25T18:24:00.000+01:00

I love, love, love these socks. LOVE them.

So, flashing back to a couple of months ago, once I had settled into the hotel, and finished off the OSBS and a present for my secret pal, I began these socks for B as a small thank you for project-managing the move (time, energy, planning and sheer physical labour).

I flew through the first leg pretty quickly, the yarn - Cherry Tree Hill Supersock, bought last year at Ally Pally - is soft and with my Addis, produced a lovely gauge, but to be honest, the colourway knitted up was pretty blah. Also, I clearly remember Gill saying that it would be more than enough for a pair of socks, but when I wound the skein into a large ball, I lost faith, because I was unsure how sock-big B's feet were, because the yarn was new to me, in short, because I am still a sock newbie, I am ashamed to say that I did not believe that the skein would suffice for two man-socks.

I bought a ball of Rowan 4-ply soft in a light olive colour, and boom, the CTH came alive. The Rowan shade matches one of the dyes in the CTH perfectly, and simply allowed all the different browns and greens to reveal themselves. I fell in love.

I chose the 4-ply merino because I was impatient, because I couldn't stop knitting these socks, although I knew that it was not a satisfactory substitute for heels and toes. I wasn't really aware of any solid sock yarn available in the UK, but at some point towards the end I searched online and found Opal solids and more upsettingly, a CTH solid in the exact same olive shade as in the multi. Patience, who's Patience?

These socks were knitted up very quickly (and at one point, from the same ball, not something I shall try again unless absolutely desperate), but were not finished quickly, as I had to keep getting B to try them on for size, before I could finish the toes. The picture to the left shows both socks with only the toe on one sock left to do. As you can see, I had quite a lot of yarn left, so could easily have added an inch to the cuffs.

Details
Pattern: basic cuff-down sock
Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill Supersock
Needles: 2.5mm DPNs for cast-on and 2.5mm Addi Turbo circular needles for body

I love these socks because:
1) they were a dream to knit, I will definitely be using CTH again
2) the addition of the olive toes and heels brought a dull colourway to life (but goodness, the amount of seaming at the end!)
3) they remind me of my long but happy stay in the hotel and knitting them on my longer commute.

Happily, B loves them too, and expressed surprise at the fine knit - not sure what he was expecting, thick cabled aran socks for trekking to the South Pole perhaps?

BTW - that first picture, see my new bathroom floor?

One Oh-So-Beautiful Sock

2007-03-11T19:35:00.000Z

So, I mentioned that in the midst of all the mayhem, there has been knitting. Yes indeedy.

First up, my Oh So Beautiful Socks. I started this project way back in September, and immediately fell in love with both the pattern and yarn. But, nearing the end of the first sock [above], it became clear that it wouldn't fit over my heel, and I reluctantly put it away in a plastic bag until I felt strong enough to rip it.

I started the second sock and this time, increased the number of stitches to take into account my tight tension and the stitch pattern. But, although the size seemed better, I lost enthusiasm. I'm not sure whether it was Christmas knitting or just other projects that captured my attention, but this sock languished until I arrived at the hotel in late January with a box of yarn, bags of WIPs and lots of knitting time. It was one of the first projects I pulled out, and think it only required an evening or so to finish.

Before grafting and seaming

Unfortunately, the bag with the first sock is missing, and indeed, I think it had already disappeared some time before the whole packing chaos began. The bag had been sitting in the hallway, and it is possible that it was mistaken for rubbish (heh, not by me). Maybe it will turn up sometime. Until then, I present sock no 2 as an FO.

Details
Pattern: Oh So Beautiful Socks by Judy Sumner, designed for Lorna's Laces
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Purple Club
Needles: Sock no 1: 2.5mm DPNs; Sock no 2: 2.5mm Brittany DPNs and Addi Turbo circular needles

Knitting these socks, I learned two new things:

1) Sometime during sock no 2, Stefan taught me magic loop, a method I took to immediately. To be honest, I prefer the look of DPNs, but the Addis win on speed and ease of transportation.

2) Right from the cast-on of the first sock, this project introduced me to on-the-move knitting, and I came to rely on my little sock to entertain me in queues, in the pub, on the tube. For this reason only, I post this picture, of my never-to-be-seen-again half-naked foot, taken while driving a van full of boxes and furniture down the A2 (despite the circumstances, a really fun day out of London). Clearly, I wasn't the one driving the van.

__________________________________
Edit 24 March: image added

This time I’m really back

2007-03-03T21:17:00.000Z

It’s March, and I last posted properly in January, eek.

So as not to bore you witless, some bullet points of the past six weeks.

< Sorting and clearing
Days (and nights, sometimes 48-hour shifts) I have toiled, reminisced, cried, packed things for charity, for rubbish and others for storage.

< Boxes
Newly-developed ability to turn flat-pack into a box in nano-seconds

< Gales
Normally not especially noteworthy, in this case however, a crucial element affecting the logistics of my move

< Stress
Fatigue, tears. There has been shouting.

< Hotel
Wonderful hotel room with modern, trendy bathroom You have no idea what a walk-in shower means to me

< Commuting
Hate the early wake-up call, but LOVE the G&T at the bar in the evenings

< My birthday
Dinner here

< Appreciating my friends and family
Nuff said

I am still in the hotel, and much as I am loathe to leave it, I am in all likelihood moving back home next week. Which is not ready and NOWHERE near the state I had envisaged, not even close. All that hope and optimism about a better future in my new year’s post? A long, long, LONG way to go baby.

Still, on the positive side, much progress has been made. I can’t fault the work so far, I just wish there had been more of it. And there is a plan in place for the next stage to keep my sanity.

Right, that’s enough of that. This is a knitting blog and my next posts will be about the knitting.

Hello, I'm back.

2007-02-01T15:41:00.000Z

Thanks to everyone who has left a comment or sent an email; I will respond and post properly at the weekend, which I'm hoping will be entirely devoted to catching up with what's going on in knitblogland.

Ex

2007-01-16T21:48:00.000Z

Just a quick post - life is mayhem and stressful at the moment while I pack boxes, sort stuff for recycling and throw out rubbish. My hands are raw, my nerves ragged, my whole being sleep-deprived, weary, fed up and I JUST WANT IT TO BE ALL OVER.

As of tomorrow afternoon, I shall be on holiday (was ever a word so misused), and by Sunday evening, I will have (gulp!) moved all belongings into storage and myself into temporary accommodation. Friends and family are helping, I just hope we're all still speaking to each other at the end of it all.

The first week or so, I'll be in a hotel/B&B, just enjoying not having anything to do or worry about, just lots of telly, knitting, sleeping - LOTS OF SLEEPING - and just slowly returning to sanity. I might make a start on the paperwork that's been building up, hell, I might even resume my studies. Then, depending how much recovery time I need, I'll move to stay with friends till I can return home. I'm not making any definite plans on that front yet; I won't be taking any holiday from work during this time, and to be quite honest, coming "home" and shutting the door on the world for evenings of peaceful solitude is what appeals right now. [Is that terribly ungrateful of me?]

Not surprisingly, there hasn't been much knitting going on, but there has been some (essential stress-relief!), and hopefully I'll be able to show you a couple of small FOs next week. Till then, I just keep telling myself that the end is in sight/there is light at the end of the tunnel/[insert your own platitude here]. No, really, it's what keeps me going: in a few days, I can say goodbye to this phase of my life, and I will be happy.

See you on the other side.

Wednesday, early hours of the morning - edited to add: My brain is mush, I rambled on about the move, but the ACTUAL point of this not-so-quick post was to say hello to everyone who has stopped by the blog recently, and to apologise for not being very chatty these past couple of weeks, in particular to my secret pal. Congratulations again SP, on your wonderful news (heh, this may mean you aren't so secret any more?)

2007-01-07T20:05:00.000Z

Runagogo is a fantastic site found via Knit Two Purl Two. It's a group of knitters and other crafters all rising to the challenge set by Rachael to move 100 miles in the first three months of 2007, and exactly the motivation I need to get my fat ass into shape.

I used to run regularly, but in recent years, became increadingly sporadic to the point where I just. Stopped. Running. During last year's trip to New York I picked up a hugely useful and inspirational running book and did actually start some gentle jogging again, but then Stuff got in the way, and that was the end of that.

So, Runagogo is just what the doctor ordered, great concept, cool blog with links to useful sites and tools to help keep you on track.

2007-01-01T19:09:00.000Z

I've been meaning to take pictures of my yarn purchase from before Christmas, but the weather has been so lousy here in London, that there simply hasn't been enough light. On this new year's morn, there was some actual sunlight, so I scrambled for my camera and quickly snapped these.

First up, a Magic Ball from Be Sweet (I think, since there is no label). I have absolutely no idea what I am going to knit with this, I suspect a scarf, but I don't even know what needle size to use or how far the yarn will go. No matter, it is very pretty, much more so than I've portrayed here.

In the I Knit London shop, there is a beautiful throw made out of some Safricana mohair, which convinced me to buy a couple of balls of the boucle to swatch. I'm afraid this picture isn't very true; the orange isn't as bright as appears in the photo, and the darker skein is a purpley grey. Both are beautiful. I'm going to use the grey for swatching for the throw, and the orange for a scarf. Actually, it occurs to me that I could use it for the curlicue ruffle scarf that I seem to have abandoned, instead of the KSH, although the yardage is a little short. [BTW, apparently, the Be Sweet and the Safricana yarns are the same, but traded by different suppliers].

Next up, another yarn new to me, Manos del Uruguay. The bottle green skein is a present and the multi-coloured is for me. The multi is just the prettiest yarn I have ever seen, and I bought it with no project in mind, just to keep in stash and periodically look at and sigh. I love it so much, I'e added another close-up below.

In addition, I bought a skein of Cherry Tree Hill Supersock in the Martha's Vineyard colourway [below], also as a gift, and two balls of Louisa Harding Grace in plum. I'd used the ball I had in stash for a present I am knitting, and needed just another ball to complete, but bought two in case the dyelots didn't match, and I had to start all over again!

Finally, I bought a Rowan booklet for a simple lace scarf pattern (using KSH, um, I DON'T THINK SO) and a needle measurement tool, just because I love gadgets. As you can see, I had a wonderful time shopping and it didn't stop there. This week, I've been flexing the plastic on the internet quite a fair bit. I'm very excited about these purchases but I'll post about them when they arrive.

With so many new projects planned, I'm going to make a concerted effort to regain control of my stash and WIPs, by identifying those that I want to finish (for example, the lovely Cozy, which only needs to be blocked!), and ripping all other UFOs. I also have to plan the projects to work on during my temporary move and additional commute.

A time for reflection and resolution

2006-12-31T15:28:00.000Z

2006 was the year I hit a milestone birthday, which officially kicked me over the hill. I celebrated this momentous event in New York with people dear to me. It was a fabulous, fabulous time. Other than this, 2006 was another year of chaos.

2007 is going to be a better year. I don't say this out of desire and resolve, it's simply because there is no way it cannot be. The main reason for the chaos in my life is my home, the story of which is too long and boring to relate here, suffice to say that if you saw how I lived, you'd have me certified.

Renovation has been in the planning for oh so, so long. BUT it is finally here! In three weeks, I move OUT and the builders move IN. The new bathroom and kitchen units are being ordered and ohmygosh, I still can't believe it: by the end of February I will have a home I can live in. Of course, I'm not going to have any money for furniture, but that's ok, it will be renovated, redecorated, with room to move, CLEAN.

The impact this will have on other areas of my life cannot be underestimated; 1) I will be able to cook again, so my eating habits and health should improve, 2) living in a more organised and comfortable manner will reduce unnecessary spending, 3) I will be able to resume my studies.......... even little things like being able to come home from work, and drink a glass of wine on a sofa in front of the telly........... How can 2007 not be any better?

I am so excited about this, and so looking forward to this year, and even though I'll be walking further down the other side of that damn hill, I will be less stressed, much happier about life, rejunevated. I can see a whole different life ahead of me, and it's a good one. I even think I might be able to keep to some of my new year's resolutions, so, inspired by Crazy Aunt Pearl's list, I made one of my own, from which I am going to share one item: as soon as the renovation is complete, I am going to get a cat. While The Orange Cat Who Does Not Live With Me was never one for cuddles or lap sitting, I do miss feline company and I especially missed it at Christmas.

Right, I'm off out to see in the New Year with the I Knit London boys. Happy new year to you all!

2006-12-23T21:20:00.000Z

All the partying this past fortnight has meant very little knitting, so even if I had time to post, I don't actually have anything to show! But on Friday, I went to the I Knit London shop, for an evening of food and drink and ....... knitting. It was a more sedate affair than other recent social forays, but just as fun, and I managed to work some more on the simple vest and the Oh So Beautiful Socks.

In a taxi on my way home, I realised I had left my laptop and other bags behind, so the next day, I was back and this time, I left the shop with my forgotten things and more besides. Then I drove to Loop, where I again left with more than I had going in. I haven't had a chance yet to take pictures of my swag, so I'll show you after Christmas.

I also managed on Saturday to get all the necessary preparations done, and the fridge is bursting with yummy food, including good wine to take to friends in the evening. No tree this year because of the renovation work, but instead a fabulous bouquet adorns the dining table, and with candles it's all going to look very festive. Can't wait for those lillies to open and give off their heady perfume. All that is left for me to do is, ahem, a little tidying up. Please ignore the background mess in the first photo - I moved the vase to get the best light for the picture. By the way, considering the pictures were taken with my mobile and at night, I think they aren't half bad.

On a final note, back to my lovely day at the yarn shops. In each case, as I was walking to I Knit London and then Loop, there was a ginger cat loitering. The Islington boy was quite amenable to a stroke or two, and also let me take his picture, and so with this feeling of love and goodwill, I wish you all a very joyous and peaceful Christmas.

2006-12-17T15:24:00.000Z

For some time now, I have been planning to knit two lace shawls, one as a present for a friend and another for me to wear at her wedding in the new year. Now, you may be thinking that I'm trying to run before I can walk, because quite clearly, SIX FEET of Cozy doesn't count, what with it being such a simple pattern and all. Aha, but you see, I have been working on a more intricate lace pattern, albeit smaller project, for my secret pal. Obviously, my lips are sealed, but I can confirm that I have been bitten by the lace bug, and I'm very sore.

Of course, I have been desperate to get my hands on Victorian Lace Today, especially since the emphasis is apparently on rectangular shawls (my preference), I have scoured bookshops, I have made B drive me to other, larger bookshops and scoured those, I have telephoned other bookshops, visited LYSs, all to no avail: there isn't a copy of VLT to be had in London. When I first tried to order the book from Amazon UK, the dispatch time was 10-13 days, now it's 6-8 weeks!

With so many beautiful patterns available, in the end I decided on the Forest Canopy Shawl, backed up by these lovely examples here, here and here. This decision was partly influenced by the yarn I wanted to use, Posh Yarn's Lucia in mulberry, a cashmere/merino 4-ply bought months ago, but which just hasn't made it to a pair of socks yet. It is a little heavy for some of the more intricate shawls, but I thought would be perfect for the FCP.

So, after a couple of false starts experiementing with guage, the first night saw me get as far as the picture above. As you can see, it is a relatively simple knit, but not so simple that you can watch CSI at the same time (my yardstick). In the first picture, I've stretched it out a bit so that you can see the pattern, isn't it pretty?. Sorry, the colours aren't true in either picture, have to rely on my mobile till I get batteries for the camera.

2006-12-17T01:07:00.000Z

On Wednesday I went to I Knit London at the New Players' Theatre. As always, knitting in convivial surroundings, meeting new people, catching up with the old, and of course, drinking red wine all added up to a thoroughly enjoyable evening.

Even though I knew the lighting wasn't going to be the best, I took along the Knitty Cozy I started for myself some time ago. Yep, it's black, and yep, it's lace, but I know the [simple] pattern by heart, so I figured I'd be safe. Fool, fool! At some point, I made a mistake and although I did try to rip back a couple of rows and fix it, the combination of the afore-mentioned lighting, chat and *cough* wine all conspired to make it worse.

I put it away in disgust, and resorted to my on-the-go socks, whereupon the marvellous Stefan insisted on teaching me magic loop. At first I resisted, thinking it would be too complicated for me, but he made me knit a couple of rows of his own sock-in-progress to test it out. It turned out to be surprisingly simple, really SO SIMPLE, and really more logical than magical. So, having converted me, Stefan got me some 2.5mm Addi Turbos and I continued on my own sock. The little Addis are so smooth and pointy, and the little stitches just glide from needle to needle, I just flew through the next inch.

I was so excited to learn something new, but at the same time, I'm torn. I LIKE using DPNs. I dunno, I suppose handling those tiny bamboo sticks makes it feel more like knitting. I remember my first time with DPNs, and how lucky I was not to lose an eye; now, despite only having knit the grand total of three socks, I am completely comfortable working with four needles, and whip them out regularly on bus and tube journeys. (Harrumph, the circular is definitely better for travelling; I magic looped on the tube home that night, and didn't worry once about dropping stitches, dropping needles, snapping needles...).

Tomorrow, I'm going to catch up properly with both my secret pals. Last week, I sent my spoilee a small gift. Annoyingly, it will not arrive in time for Christmas (although it was bought and sent on the promise that it would, hence my irritation). Something else I have bought for her is still in transit to me; this particular item was quite difficult to find, not to mention very precious, so I hope it's just the Christmas season that is causing the delay and it hasn't got lost in the post.

Hopefully Blogger will be behaving itself too, so I can post some pictures!

2006-12-11T02:44:00.000Z

Ah, mes amis, sorry for the lack of posting. A couple of trips away have meant little time for blogging, and not much more for knitting. I did take some sock knitting with me both times, but frankly my dear, there isn't much to show for it.

But I have made some progress on current projects; the simple vest is growing with the underarms shaped, and the back almost finished. BUT..... although I bought more than the yardage specified, I might run out of yarn, since I'm almost done with the fifth out of six balls. It must be because my row count is slightly under gauge. I'll see how it looks once I've started the front section and got a feel for the size and shape, then it might be a frantic call to Laughing Hens for a match.

I've also been working on some gifts. One is a present for my secret pal, so I can't show you any pictures yet, but I'm really pleased with it so far. The others are for recipients who don't read the blog, but they're in such an embryonic state (the knitting, not the recipients), that it's hardly worth taking a picture.

All in all a pretty dull post. I'll update later in the week, this time with pictures. Hope you're all on target with your gift knitting!

Mwaaah, I wanna play

2006-11-25T16:55:00.000Z

In my travels through blogland last weekend, I came across these and these gorgeous tea-light holders on Knits and Pieces. This week, Jenna, the creator, added another. Go take a look. I imagine knitting with wire must be pretty hard on the fingers, but the results are so, so pretty and make great presents.

2006-11-19T02:52:00.000Z

So what was in the pretty Laughing Hens package? Well, lookee here, only six lovely balls of Cashsoft Aran in aubergine.

I am so, so pleased with the shade; it's even nicer than I thought it would be. The yarn is for a simple vest I'm making as a Christmas present for my father. He's not got the best eye when it comes to clothes, and I wanted a colour that had a bit of life, but would work well with mostly everything. Neither does he look after his clothes particularly carefully, so of course the yarn had to be practical, but still nice to wear. What better than a machine-washable merino/cashmere mix? Ok, so the cashmere is the smallest element, but IT'S STILL THERE.

I was so impatient to cast on, but I swatched first using 5.5mm Addi circulars (heh, I swatched, you have NO idea how funny that sounds). I obviously chose well, because my stitch count was fine for the pattern's requirements, although row count a little under. (I'll never understand why that should be.)

There have been a lot of comments about the durability of this yarn, like this one in the Knitters Review, but so far I am really feeling the love. It is so soft and buttery to knit with, just feels heavenly to the touch. The swatch looks very neat, although if I weren't knitting to the pattern's gauge, I would probably drop a needle size, especially for a rib pattern.

After swatching, I cast on and knit this pretty quickly. It probably looks like ribbing all the way, but in fact that's 1.75 inches of K1 P1 rib and the same amount in a beaded rib. Easy telly knitting. The vest is designed to be knit in the round, and from what I can make out, there are no seams to sew, and while this simplicity of construction is perfect for a gift for my father, this is my first time knitting in the round other than socks, and I'm finding it quite hard to get a feel for the size of piece without having to take half the stitches off the needle. On the plus side, whenever I look at my work and ask myself how can I only have just knitted an inch, I remember that I've knitted an inch of the back AND front, yay.

Interestingly, the beaded rib produces a completely different and useable pattern on the other side. I actually prefer this reverse side and remember a cotton summer vest I made for myself using this very pattern over 20 years ago. Think it's a bit too fussy for my D though, so will keep the rib the "right" side.

After the alcoholic excesses of this week, it's been a happily quiet weekend spent watching telly, knitting and catching up on blogs and emails. I can't believe it's Sunday evening already and back to work tomorrow.

Knitting hiatus

2006-11-19T01:35:00.000Z

Having worked on Cozy for so long, I've been at a bit of a loss for another big project for sitting in front of the telly. It isn't that that I don't have other projects on the needles or in the queue, but for one reason or another, none of them has appealed recently. I did start on a gift for my SP, but wasn't completely happy with the first two inches, so ripped it. Obviously, I can't go into any more detail here, since it's supposed to be a surprise!

Luckily, my on-the-go sock-knitting keeps me sane. Besides KIPing on the bus and in the pub a couple of times, I've stood in a taxi queue for half-an-hour twice this week, and each time, the absurdly slow wait was made bearable only by Shepherd Sock and DPNs.

On Wednesday I went to another great I Knit London knitting group meet, which you can read about on IKL's blog. I hadn't seen Gerard since Ally Pally, so it was nice to catch up with him and Craig. Which also entailed drinking far, far too much wine that night.

I received two packages this week. First, the blocking wires for Cozy. BTW, marvellous service from Heirloom Knitting; the wires were ordered on Friday and delivered on Tuesday, with email updates throughout.

Then, on Thursday, another prettily wrapped package from Laughing Hens, the contents of which I'll show you tomorrow.

Stick a fork in me, I'm done

2006-11-12T00:02:00.000Z

Cozy is finished! Yeah, baby.

Just cast off. I will take pictures of the blocking process; yesterday, I ordered some blocking wires from heirloom knitting, but I'm not sure when they're going to arrive. Until then Cozy is sitting folded by my side, measuring 67.5 inches long and 15 inches wide. I'm just so pleased to be done with the knitting, so I can concentrate on other projects, what with Christmas and a couple of other knitworthy events coming up.

Not much other knitting to report this week. For a portable project, I cast on My Oh So Beautiful Socks again, this time with 72 stitches, but with such little progress, it's hardly worth noting here.

In blogging news, sometime during the week, I lost half my blog template. Don't know how or when, or indeed why, but I hope I've sorted it now.

With no knitting or yarny pictures, I'll leave you with a gratuitous picture of The Orange Cat Who Does Not Live With Me.

2006-11-04T20:41:00.000Z

I'm on the home stretch. Cozy measures 48 inches, and I've just started the fourth skein of malabrigo. Trouble is, I'm getting more and more worried about the width; it's currently 17 inches stretched, but merino has so much memory, it keeps bouncing back to 15 inches. I am not convinced blocking is going to give me the additional five or so inches that I want. This is a present for someone, so ripping it is not an option. I thought about creating same-patterned panels to run either side, but even if the seaming was invisible, they would completely ruin the drape of the shawl, so I'll just have to add a border and ~~hope~~ block for the best. If anyone has any ideas or tips for blocking worsted merino, please, please let me know.

2006-10-27T22:58:00.000+01:00

Time for a quick update, to show that in between weekends buying yarn, I do actually knit stuff.

First up, My Oh So Beautiful Socks in Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock. Several weeks ago, I turned the heel on the first sock, and it became painfully clear that the tent stitch (which shows off the different colours so prettily) combined with tight tension meant too small a sock. Hell, I couldn't even pull the cuff over my heel. I briefly toyed with the idea of carrying on and making the socks for a friend with much smaller feet, but no, the selfish gene is too strong. I just love this yarn and I love this pattern..... so it's been sitting in a bag out of sight these past few weeks, until I can bring myself to rip it out.

In the meantime, I have wound another skein of LLSS to start again and cast on. Since I actually like my very tight gauge for socks, I shall keep using the same needles, but this time increase the number of stitches in the round. Here's a close-up of the pattern.

Now I know that a strong flash and a crumpled sheet does not a good photo make, but I wanted to show you progress on my main project, approx 33 inches of Cozy using two skeins of malabrigo pure merino.

I'm utterly delighted with the shawl so far, although it's much narrower than I'd like (you can see the end nearer the camera is wider from my constant stretching). I'm hoping that aggressive blocking will sort that problem. I'm much quicker with the repeats now, but I don't have much time for knitting at the moment *sigh*, so progress is not as quick as it could be, but I make sure I knit at least one repeat every evening during the week and catch up at the weekend.

According to the pattern, this is the half-way stage, so, having run out of malabrigo, I went back to Stash Yarns on Saturday to buy another two skeins. Stash really is a fabulous shop, and into the bag with the malabrigo fell a ball of Louisa Harding's Grace in plum and a skein of alpaca silk plus assorted circular and bamboo needles. The photo below doesn't really show the colour of the alpaca (below right) at all well (believe me, the flash version is even worse), but it's a deep plum colour. Simply gorgeous.

Remember my plans for a Cozy for me? Well, I cast on the Jaeger extra fine merino aran on straight needles, allowing for the different gauge by adding two more repeats across the needles. Since the wool is black, my intention was always to have this as a portable project, particularly suited to long car journeys in daylight, Saturday afternoons at I Knit London and the like; I even took it to Ally Pally (all that sunlight in the Knit and Relax and Knitterati Glitterati areas would have been ideal, but in truth it never even left the car). Several weeks since casting on, I have barely finished the first repeat. It's not just that on-the-go-daylight-knitting opportunities have not been there, I'm not really sure the gauge is right. The fabric (all two inches of it) is stiff and tight. It could be that I need to knit a few more repeats for it all to fall into wonderfully soft drape-y place, but even B has noticed that I am simply not feeling the love (heh, B's appreciation of knitting is a concilliatory measure to appease me if I'm feeling irritable).

Me: Did you [find the phone charger/call the builders/pay the bill]?
B: Er, no. What [phone charger/builders/bill]?
Me: The [phone charger for the mobile, with the dead battery/builders supposed to be renovating the flat/bill that has "reminders" in red all over it] that I asked you to deal with a hundred times already.
B: Er, no
Me: I told you etc etc..... very important etc etc..... you never listen to me etc etc..... how many time do I have to tell you etc etc..... why do I bother etc etc.....?

Pause

B: Darling, have you bought any yarn this weekend?
Me: Ooooh yes, I went to [Stash/Loop/IKL] and I bought some [Debbie Bliss/Jaeger/malabrigo/Cherry Tree Hill] and..... and...... and...... [more excited chatter]
B: Because the black one isn't working out.
Me: EXACTLY, you're so clever, you're such a wonderful man for listening to me and taking an interest in my crafty pursuits etc etc....... I'm so lucky etc etc .......
B: *sigh of relief*

2006-10-25T01:53:00.000+01:00

Last Saturday was a day of irritation and stress, interspersed with short bursts of knitty goodness. Knitflicks at the Ritzy was showing The Devil Wears Prada, and since my trips south of the river are not as frequent as they used to be, I decided to combine a visit to Stash Yarns to pick up some more malabrigo pure merino for Cozy (progress report to follow in next post).

After a tortuous drive, due to 1) a dreadful standstill at the Wandsworth one-way-system and 2) road works in Putney, I was not in the best of moods when I finally arrived at the shop, but my mood lifted as soon as I stepped through the door. Luckily, I had phoned ahead to make sure the malabrigo was there, so there was no disappointment on that front, and a little chat with Michelle, the shop's owner, and a look at the new (and older) yarns made for a very pleasant and calming 45 minutes. Pictures of purchases to follow.

Unfortunately, there was no way I could avoid the road works traffic and it took me just under an hour to get to Brixton. The programme had already started, and the box office closed when I arrived at the cinema. I know I was in an irritable mood and probably over-sensitive to the minutes ticking by, but you know Mr Cinema Manager, in order for the public to see films, they have to buy tickets, and get this for a novel idea, for them to buy tickets, the ticket office has to be OPEN, dammit. Whilst I screamed silently, other people waiting were more vocal and eventually the duty manager opened up the office.

Miraculously, the film had not yet started, hoorah. I chose a seat and sat down, then a minute later, moved again, and again a third time. The screen for the showing was small, with dreadfully uncomfortable (through age and much use) and dirty, ripped seats. It was certainly not conducive to knitting. Worse still, it was half-term, and in the front row were three pre-teens, who walked and talked throughout the film.

All in all, the experience was nothing like the usual at the Ritzy. As for the film, it wasn't the satirical look at the fashion industry I'd been expecting, but thoroughly entertaining nonetheless. I loved every minute of it, and the clothes, ohmigod, the clothes...........

After the film, I braved more bad traffic to get to I Knit London. I wanted to see the Cherry Tree Hill supersock they had recently got in store, buy a few things for my secret pal and then relax in the shop and perhaps sew a few blue squares together. In the end I only bought a set of dpns and the first issue of Yarn Forward. I'd forgotten that Gerard and Craig were in Bracknell for the Unravel festival, but got to meet Stefan instead, who was just as helpful and charming as the boys, if in somewhat odd attire. While I was there, a lady came in to learn how to knit for the baby she was expecting, how cool is it that she felt that she could walk in and ask to learn? When I left the shop, she had needles and yarn in her hand and was looking very happy.

So I headed back north of the river. In total I’d driven about four hours but very few miles. Before going home and closing the door on the world, I stopped at my local, where over an excellent Thai red curry and a large glass of pinot grigio, I finally relaxed and read Yarn Forward. It's had rave reviews from bloggers so far, so I'll reserve my thoughts for another post.

2006-10-19T23:22:00.000+01:00

Thanks to a little judicious shopping yesterday, my camera is again talking to my pc. Having uploaded the photos, I was really tempted to edit previous posts and replace all the bad pictures taken by my mobile, but I have decided just to focus on future posts.

However, it does mean that I can update on something long overdue, namely Sock Wars. These are the marvellous socks knit in Koigu that killed me. How lucky am I? Sent also by my assassin were lip balm, chocolate (um, already eaten) and raspberry and pomegranate tea, but even without these wonderful goodies, I am so absolutely delighted with the socks. Thank you Geeyouknit for a fabulous package.

This is the sock and remaining yarn (and small thank you present) that I sent back to my assassin. As posted previously, I could have started (and perhaps finished) the second sock, but t'was not to be. Unfortunately, Geeyouknit has also been killed, so I'm not entirely sure where the socks are at this moment, but hopefully they are on their way to Spooky Knitter. Sock Wars was a lot of fun (and these pictures are soooomuch better than my mobile's).

Specs:
Debbie Bliss merino DK, 100% merino wool in burnt orange.

2006-10-15T11:31:00.000+01:00

I went to Ally Pally this week for the Knitting and Stitching Show. It was my first time and it didn't disappoint, it was eff-ay-bee.

I loved being able to look and touch beautiful yarn that I have been drooling over on the internet. It was particularly exciting that Cheryl Potter from Cherry Tree Hill was there, and I came away with a skein of Supersock and a pattern for a vest that I am going to make for my father.

I went with Gerard and we focused on the yarn stalls. We both thought the new Sirdar range, Sublime, looked like Rooster, yarn, brochure, image. Talking of Rooster, did anyone see the fabulous knitted sofa cover? Now, that would look very nice in my study.

I would have loved to look at all the other non-knitting stalls, but I'm glad I didn't. I would have ended up buying things and starting new projects, and right now life is simply too chaotic to allow for any other crafts.

It was great to see Gerard being recognised so much - hopefully, I will be seeing him and Craig behind their own I Knit London stall next year! In fact, one of the best things about the day was meeting other knitters, bloggers or LYS owners, although one person was heard to say that their shop was too high-end for Ally Pally. Oh, we laughed about that over a glass of wine in the pub afterwards. Miaow.

Comments, what comments?

2006-10-14T17:33:00.000+01:00

I have just found unpublished comments left this week by my Secret Pal and by my Sock Wars assassin over two weeks ago! It turns out comment moderation was activated, but the email address for notifying me was one I used when I started blogging way back in 2001. I hardly ever look at this particular email address, as it's now just a repository for email from strangers who generously want to share their massive wealth with me, if only I would just give them my bank details, or those good, good people, who, naturally concerned for my health and wellbeing, keep me up-to-date with the latest pharmaceutical offerings at very fair prices.

Back to the point: I have updated the email address for notification, and removed comment moderation altogether. Many apologies for seeming to ignore you guys, honestly I had no idea, and I do appreciate you dropping me a line.

Hello Secret Pal

2006-10-12T00:14:00.000+01:00

Secret Pal 9 has begun. Well, actually, it doesn't start until the 15th, but the questionnaire has been posted, and we have been matched. I've already visited my spoilee's blog, and am really looking forward to spoiling her. So, for my secret pal (hello wherever you are!) and anyone else interested, here are my answers to the questionnaire.

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?
I have mostly knit with DK wool, sometimes cotton. This year, I've started to use different textures and weights, and am pretty much open to anything at the moment. With all the lovely choice of natural fibres available, I can't see the point of acrylic on its own, although undoubtedly there are practical benefits, I mean who actually enjoys handwashing?

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?
Um, nothing. They are usually poking out of my basket, alternatively I find them under the sofa, under the bed, in the bed. Some of the roll-up holders are so pretty, but all the straight needles I use are 35cm long, which tends to limit the choice. One day I'll make one. I have a set of pretty coloured Boyes interchangeable circulars which came in a practical, but oh-so-ugly (olive-beige, plastic cover, nasty) zipped pouch. Any rogue Addis get stuffed in there too.

3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?
My mother taught me about 30 years ago, and I've been knitting ever since, but there is always stuff to learn, for example, I knit my first socks this year.

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?
Yes, but it needs updating.

5. What's your favorite scent? (for candles, bath products, etc.)
Fresh, lemon-y smells rather than sweet, musky ones (although they are nice too!). I am not keen on vanilla. I love seaweed or watermelon scents.

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy?
Although I DO like chocolate, crisps are more my thing. I prefer salty or sour things (margarita, anyone?).

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin?
Crochet, sewing, tapestry, card-making, albeit I haven't done any of that for years. I cannot spin.

8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)
In my dreams, I am on a dark stage in a smoky club, singing my broken heart out à la Judy. When I'm not a diva, I listen to a wide range of music, from Sinatra to the Sugababes, Crowded House to the Cure. I was a teenager in the 80s, so own a lot of punk and goth music (love those jangly guitars). My current favourite band is the Killers.

9. What's your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can't stand?
I've always loved purples and pinks (dusky tones though - bright pink is a big no-no). Currently, I am strangely drawn to burnt orange and all greens (really, my younger Goth self would be horrified). Not keen on brown on its own, but love it mixed with, say russets and gold, autumnal colours. The colour blue is very evocative (the sky, the sea), but I have no blue in my home and very little in my wardrobe (jeans). Looks great on men though.

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?
I live alone. I have an orange cat, but last year he moved to live in a house with a garden. He doesn't call or write.

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?
Hats don't look so great on me, or rather, the hats looks great, I on the other hand look utterly ridiculous.
Scarves - love 'em. What's not to like? Quick to knit, makes a great present, transforms a so-so outfit to a great one. Love scarves.
Mittens - sorry, knitted gloves are not for me.
Ponchos - pass; not entirely sure what this means. I love shawls, but ponchos? I think I had one as a child.

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?
Jumpers/sweaters, although I'm really enjoying shawl knitting at the moment.

13. What are you knitting right now?
Socks, scarf, two shawls, jumper, cardigan

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?
Handmade or bought, all gifts are treasured.

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?
35cm straight, only because that's what I am used to, and I think they have all been aluminium. Am still a bit of a circulars newbie, and only on flat pieces so far. DPNs tend to be 5 inch bamboo.

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift?
No. I wind yarn using other someone else's arms or various inanimate objects.

17. How old is your oldest UFO?
Six months. A fabulous jumper with bell sleeves, using a gorgeous purple Jaeger DK. All knitting done, just can't bring myself to sew the pieces together (because then I can no longer pretend that it's gonna fit).

18. What is your favorite holiday?
Christmas and new year, and so many others.

19. Is there anything that you collect?
Stationery. Candles. Green glass. Bills. Clutter.

20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?
I subscribe to Interweave, although I haven't received a magazine yet, that's my only subscription. I buy the UK's Simply Knitting off the shelf sporadically. There are loads of things I would love to get my hands on, too numerous to list here. Most of the overseas yarn that I covet, I try to find online, but I suppose what immediately springs to mind as hard to get are the KnitPicks products, especially the needles and KIPer bags, because KP do not ship outside North America. Bad KP, bad!

21. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn?
Loads! Finishing techniques, magic loop, toe-up socks.....

22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?
Socks are a great portable project, and sock yarn is luscious. My feet are a UK 5.

23. When is your birthday? (mm/dd)

ETA: this post has been sitting in my drafts folder for a few days now; bizarrely, I want to answer each question with my life story. Sorry for rambling, I'm not so good on short answers.

Gee, I don't feel so well

2006-09-28T23:08:00.000+01:00

As soon as I had her email address, I googled and checked out my assassin's blog, but as there was no mention of SockWars, I figured she was one of those who hadn't been keeping up with events and was in the dark about her target. I relaxed. I stopped knitting my socks.

Fool, fool! For, as I write, my assassin's socks are winging their way over the Atlantic to me. Upon receipt, I shall die and must send her my own weapons (currently consisting of 3/4 of a sock) and target's details.

I always thought I would go out in the first round, but I might have had a fighting chance of getting further if I hadn't been so complacent. Never mind, it's been great fun, and I can help my assassin by knitting as much of the sock until the package actually arrives. Elizabeth, I'm really looking forward to receiving your socks, even if they are full of all of your sad.

2006-09-24T22:32:00.000+01:00

Another week of knitting goodness. Monday I went to John Lewis, where I changed my mind about the DK for SockWars and bought this ball of Cashsoft. I've been wanting to try this for some time, and thought socks would be a great small project to try it out, plus add a little special softy goodness to the gift. I swatched on Friday, was relatively happy with the result, went back to JL on Saturday to buy another ball........ to find that there wasn't a single ball left of the same colour, let alone dye-lot.

So I bought two balls of DB merino DK in a deep orange. So far, it's been lovely to use, but I'm not convinced that it's a good yarn for socks (especially those with a stretchy rib pattern - unless they were only ever to be used slouching on a sofa in front of a fire).

The SockWars pattern is simple and suits DK - (with a more robust yarn, these would make great socks for men) and I knit the leg, turned the heel and picked up the instep very quickly. Quite a few of the warriors had finished their socks in a couple of days, although with no homes to go to..............

..............due to power outages and resulting IT problems, the onset of war was delayed, dossiers still have not been sent out resulting in much confusion and some resentment. This is a great shame, because by all accounts, the Yarn Monkey has organised this war on her own, while looking after her family and keeping down a job. If I had been affected by a hurricane, I'm not sure that emailing 700+ knitters their dossiers would be very high on my priority list, and the fact that she has obviously had to overcome huge obstacles to provide us with enough information to make a start is nothing short of amazing. I wish the kill-joys would remember this is supposed to be fun.

In other knitty news, I went to two knitting groups this week; on Tuesday I went to Angelknits, the first time in months. I do like the Rose Inn, but that evening the lighting was dreadful. Still, it was nice to catch up with people. On Wednesday the Phoenix hosted another excellent evening at the I Knit London club, which you can read about here.

Cozy is progressing slowly. I had a slight setback, when I had to rip out a few rows to correct an error, and as I've said before, frogging this yarn in this pattern is not fun. But I love the pattern so much, I really want to make a shawl for myself, so I bought some Jaeger extra fine merino aran in black.

After John Lewis, I paid my first visit to Loop. Just like Stash Yarns, the shop is much smaller than appears on the website, but Oh. My. God. What gorgeous, gorgeous yarn. I particularly fell in love with the Be Sweet yarns [tagline: creative products with a conscience]. As soon as I have finished both Cozies, I'm going to buy me some of this dang good stuff and knit me a piece of heaven.

Anyway, obviously I couldn't leave Loop without buying something; a couple of sets of bamboo dpns, my first Addis, and this, one skein of Debbie Bliss pure silk. I'm going to see how far it goes into making a scarf - using the Cozy pattern OF COURSE.

Right, that's me done for tonight. Must stop buying yarn and concentrate on some actual knitting this week. Hopefully, I'll have some pictures of some FOs soon.

2006-09-17T14:01:00.000+01:00

Last night I wound one of the malabrigo skeins into a ball, and cast on Cozy (twice in fact, having realised after four rows, that I was five stitches short, gah), and in very little time I was completely miserable. This afternoon, I picked it up again, telling myself that after another row, it would all fall into place, but coming to the end of the first repeat, all I had was an ugly mess.

It was clear that the yarn-overs weren’t creating the required holes. So, I logged onto Knittinghelp, and with the help of one of those nifty little videos, realised that I was creating a purl yarn-over rather than a knit one. So, I ripped back to the rib and started again.

And immediately saw the difference. I've now completed three repeats, and absolutely LOVE THE PATTERN. Pictures to follow soon.

I don't usually work with this yarn weight. It's a worsted yarn, but is heavier than aran. Unpicking stitches has sometimes been a little sticky, but otherwise, it's very easy to knit with.
The Boyes have been such a great investment. I love the fact that I can delve in for any needle size. I was a little worried about using circulars again, my KSH experience still not forgotten, and to be honest, a bit confused how you use circulars on a flat piece. Nevertheless, the logical way turned out to be correct, and I quickly got used to them. Due to my tight tension, I do sometimes have a bit of trouble moving stitches from the cable to the needle, but I love the way I can stretch out the piece for a good inspection, and the fact that I can toss the work aside without anything falling off the needles!

2006-09-17T02:58:00.000+01:00

Another week, and more yarn purchases, but not for new projects. Earlier in the week, I received Lucia sock yarn from Posh Yarns, one skein each in Mulberry and Scuffle. The Scuffle was initially intended for my Sock Wars assassination target, but since yarn specifications were announced, they are both now headed for stash. Must. Not. Touch. Till. Two. WIPs. Are. Completed.

Today, I bought a ball each of Rooster's DK in grape and DB Baby Cashmerino in red. One of these will be my actual DK for the Sock Wars. I also bought 3.0mm, 3.5mm and 4.0mm DPNs, and, with six days till war, now I just need to find the time to swatch.

Progress on My Oh So Beautiful Sock continues slowly. I took it to my first Knitflicks visit today to see Black Dahlia. I really did enjoy knitting at the cinema very much, although the film's story required one to concentrate all the time, as does picking up the instep stitches. Needless to say, I lost the plot several times, and was looking forward to talking about it with the other knitters in the café afterwards.

Only there was no café afterwards. I was a bit sad about this, as I'd really wanted to thank Claire for organising it, but there were no knitters in the bar, so after a wander round the crafts on display in the foyer, I took myself off down the road to I Knit London, where Gerard informed me that the café at the Ritzy was upstairs. [I really could kick myself, as I have actually eaten there before].

Anyway, I had a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon at IKL. I bought the Rooster and DB, Gerard made me cups of tea, and I spent a couple of hours knitting and chatting.

2006-09-10T20:37:00.000+01:00

I have long been wanting to knit my first shawl, and after weeks of ~~surfing~~ research, finally decided on Cozy (how cool does that chick look pairing it with jeans?). Having found the perfect pattern, I then spent a lot of time looking for the right yarn; given that this will be my first attempt at shawl knitting, requires a lot of yarn, must (if successful) match both casual and work wardrobes, I have looked at and considered a mind-boggling number of different fibres, textures and weights.

Then this week, I decided to knit the shawl for someone else. This made the correct yarn choice even more important, and so I took myself off to Stash and came away with two skeins of malabrigo pure merino wool in pagoda. It's a bit thicker than I would have liked, but the colour is just so gorgeous, a deep autumnal russet (not as pink as these pictures. Just hope the shawl's intended recipient loves it as much as I do.

2006-09-10T17:24:00.000+01:00

I've never really had a stash, although my knitting basket has always contained balls of leftover yarn or one-offs bought for swatches. And because I've always concentrated on one project at a time, I have never accumulated yarn that doesn't get knitted into something straight away.

But recently, I can't stop starting new projects, and my current squeeze has been left in the cold while I flirt with these:

Stitchdiva's curlicue ruffle scarf.
After gushing over the pattern and yarn [in my last post], I cast on and knit a couple of rows. I have never used circular needles or knit with KSH, and I started the project in poor light, using only a side lamp. Suffice to say, I didn't enjoy the experience at all, and my initial enthusiasm quickly died. I still love the scarf and will definitely persevere (you gotta learn somehow, right?); I'm hoping that once I master KSH, a few presents could come out of this, but for now, this is on the back-burner.

My Oh So Beautiful Socks
A project of love. It started one warm evening after dinner at Chez Med, finishing a bottle of red in their covered outside area, when B held out his arms for me to wind Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock yarn into a ball. I started the leg during shopping breaks last weekend, and took it to IKL's launch party. This is my travelling project, I knit it when B is driving, in the pub, standing in queues.

I love this yarn, it's so soft and so pretty, definitely my favourite sock yarn (haha, total experience to date = TWO). The pattern is simple to follow, and I think some presents could follow from this too.

Sock Wars
The arsenal (yarn and needles) has taken everyone by surprise: double knit and 3.5mm or size for gauge. Double knit? I confess I'm a bit disappointed by this because a) I had ordered a skein of cashmere/merino yarn from Posh Yarns and had been looking forward to knitting this for someone; and b) socks will be finished more quickly, and although I fully expect to be out of the war in the first round, my actual knitting and involvement appears to be even less than I first thought. Oh well, it's still a fabulously fun idea, and I'm excited to be part of it.

Cozy
My first attempt at shawl knitting, more yarn shopping yesterday, details to follow in next post.

Finally, back to my older WIPs. Remember DB's ribbon-edged cardigan [from now on to be called Ribbon]. As I've mentioned countless times before, I knit very tightly, but even with larger needles, I cannot get guage. A couple of weeks ago, I just felt that what I had knitted so far, was too small. So I frogged it. The resulting ball looked very sad.

I swatched again, but in the end decided to start again using the same needles as before, but trying to relax my tension. A few inches in, I am pretty happy with the result, it's just that I have so many other projects on the go, that I haven't got very far.

As for Marlowe, I still haven't done the neck edging. So near to completion, this is in danger of becoming a UFO.

I have six projects on the needles, and Christmas presents waiting in line. I know for some this is a pathetic number that they deal with on a daily basis. It is, however, too many for ME. So, I've decided not to buy any more yarn or start any new knits until two WIPs are finished. Hah!

Edited to add: um, I've just signed up for Secret Pal 9. I've been planning to for a while, and it involves more buying than actual knitting, so it doesn't count, right?

2006-09-06T00:24:00.000+01:00

I am so sorry for the quality of the pictures in this post, but I'm still reliant on my mobile and I simply cannot wait for my camera to behave.

So, first up, on Friday evening I was in an area in South Oxfordshire I know very well, and somehow on my way home absent-mindedly missed my turning to London and got lost, and in my resulting attempt to find my way back to the M40, drove even further westwards (helloooooo?) and ended up in Oxford, drove through a red light (not intentionally!) and almost lost it at a crucial roundabout moment. Eventually I got back to London, drove to Ikea (thank heavens for midnight closing), with great will and determination made my way round the store without looking at any of the goodies, and only picked up what I really came for (you know how HARD that was) and like a blinkered horse made my way to the check-out, where with a sinking heart I realised that I had left my plastic in the car. And I was desperate for the loo. Really, it was a miserable evening.

I remember a time when you had to walk the entire Ikea store just to get out again; fortunately, times have changed and so has their attitude. The store at Neasden has recently undergone a massive restructuring (jeez, you can even take your trolley to your car), and I was able to nip out to the car park and back again to the queue in less time it takes to write about it. The staff were absolutely fantastic and I am very grateful to them.

Anyway, this is all irrelevant; I am just setting the picture. I want you to understand how fed up and tense I was when I finally arrived at home late Friday, to find a package at my door, the contents of which were:

I have long been lusting after the KnitPicks needles (and still am), but having followed the discussion on AngelForums, was convinced to try the Boyes and ordered them from Woolly Workshop on Wednesday, and received them on Friday. [Fantastic, top-notch service from Woolly Workshop.]

The next day I went shopping for (clothes, make-up, shoes, and) YARN.

I bought these for Stitchdiva's curlicue ruffle scarf, which I have been wanting to make ever since I first laid eyes on the funky pattern. There are three yarns of different weights and textures used in the scarf, and I agonised for weeks about the choice. Eventually, I bought two balls of KSH, one in Marmalade, one in Majestic (contrary to what the photo suggests). They aren't both destined for the scarf; I really fancy the idea of an orange scarf, but can't decide on the colour for the edging, whereas I know what I'm doing with purple, and as it happens, later that day, at I Knit London's new shop (more on that in a minute), I bought a skein of Araucania Natural Cotton in a dusky pink, which is actually one of the edging yarns used in one of the scarf's kits. I still have a third yarn to choose for the purple version, and still looking at options for the orange.

I'd also been looking to buy the 9mm 80cm circulars required, but in a rare coming together of wants and needs, that particular problem was solved by the Boyes order. So, am set to start the funky scarf.

Finally, a quick word about the newest LYS in London, I Knit London, run by the indefatigable Gerard and Craig. I went (albeit late) to their opening day, to see the shop and marvel at their yarns. I also fondled a skein of sparkly yarn costing £30+, it was beautiful. Please visit them if you are in the area. Gerard and Craig are wonderful people, knowledgeable and charming, and they are working hard to make I Knit London a success.

2006-08-23T19:46:00.000+01:00

I am a
Daffodil

What Flower
Are You?

Found courtesy of Daisy.

And there was me thinking all this time, I was a delicate and precious orchid.

FO - first socks

2006-08-21T23:12:00.000+01:00

So it eventually occurred to me that a broken dpn did not mean the end of my sock knitting. [I've only been knitting for over thirty years, go figure.] I think it's because I'm such a novice when it comes to socks, and still dependant on rules Thou shalt need five needles for the heel rather than looking at the big picture.

But the knitting fairy waved her magic needle, and in a flash I realised (not without some embarrassment) that with the aid of some holding yarn through the unused stitches, I could work quite happily on the heel flap, then a judicious spread of stitches on three needles (hey, that's how it started, right?) meant I could turn the heel and shape the instep.

I had a lot of time on my hands last week, and I stormed through that second sock, STORMED I tell you, and tonight I finished and grafted the toe. My determination was fuelled by the desire for a FO, so that I could cast on the Lorna's Laces socks without guilt. Also, it was important for me to practice as much sock knitting as possible, to allow me at least a fighting chance in the upcoming Sock Wars.

I really loved making these socks. There is something incredibly satisfying in seeing tangible, practical yet pretty results in such a short time. In truth, there were times when knitting with four needles was awkward and fiddly, and Sock Number Two is not as perfect as its older brother and they could both do with being a little bigger, but this has been a huge learning curve for me and I am pleased as Punch with them (and with myself), and proud to add this skill to my repetoire. So, meine Damen und Herren, I present to you my First Socks.

Yarn: Opal Magic in purple
Needles: Schoeller & Stahl bamboo 2.5mm
Pattern: Simple top down sock pattern from Web of Wool.

2006-08-15T17:57:00.000+01:00

Ha ha, I have signed up for Sock Wars, organised by the indefatigable Yarn Monkey. And I haven't even finished First Socks number 2 yet. This will be my first exchange and I'm so looking forward to it, although fully expecting to be out in the first round!

One of the appealing aspects for many participants is the stash-busting opportunity it provides, but the only sock yarn I have in my stash, the lovely LL Shepherd Sock yarn pictured below is destined for me. What it does mean, however, that until the Sock Wars pattern is revealed, I can buy more yarn in readiness. Oh my, the hardship.

As one of my bamboo dpns is broken, I've ordered another set of five, this time in aluminium. First Socks was the first time I had knitted with non-aluminium needles, and although I have no complaints and will continue to use them, bamboo needles are not the most robust tools (another one has bent slightly), and it doesn't hurt to have a sturdier pair to hand (literally). I really like the look of the Knit Picks nickel-plated needles, but they don't ship outside North America. What a shame, they look so pointy and so stylish.

Pictures at last

2006-08-13T22:26:00.000+01:00

The pc and camera still haven't resolved their differences, so these are pictures using my phone of the Lorna's Laces Shephed Sock yarn.
The colourway is the Purple Club, but unfortunately the colours don't show so well in these photos. It isn't as blue in reality, and the purples are actually quite vibrant, but I am desperate to start knitting with the yarn, so cannot wait for better photos.

While Blogger is allowing photo uploading*, here are [more rather blue, that's a brand new white pillow case underneath] pictures of my gorgeous PINK cardigan.

* Just like other bloggers, have been exasperated by Blogger's unwillingness to upload pictures, and spent ost of the evening working with my Flickr account, which also wouldn't work for me. Much swearing later, I gave up, and suprisingly Blogger suddenly had a change of heart.

2006-08-10T01:16:00.000+01:00

I've been wanting to update on knitting progress for ages, but for some reason my camera and laptop are not speaking to each other, so while they sort out their differences, I shall have to give up loading pictures.

It's been too hot (and in so many other ways too difficult) to work on Marlowe, but I finished the last main piece at the last I Knit London meet, and have started picking up the rib around the neck.

As [ahem] already mentioned, I failed my Knitting World Cup challenge. I completed First Socks number one and cast on First Socks number two on the day of the actual final, but since then, progress has been slow, partly because I have broken one of my dpns and partly because ............

........... of a new project. After weeks of research on the internet, I had a short list of candidates for my next main project, and finally, one Saturday went to John Lewis to look at pattern books and compare yarns "in the flesh".

I don't know how I'd missed this before (probably because I usually switch off when it comes to the colour blue), but the moment I saw the ribbon-edged cardigan, in Debbie Bliss' Cathay, I knew she was the one. The pattern itself is simple without being boring, the cardigan looks stylish and the organza ribbon on the cuffs and edges adds a pretty detail. Better still, Cathay comes in the most beautiful dusky pink, a colour to fall in love with. Really, for one who agonises over yarn choice, it was an absolute no-brainer, and I had the yarn, book and needles in a large JL bag, before you could say "swatch". Of course, I simply couldn't wait till I got home, so, over an enormous cup of tea in Costa Coffee I tested my gauge. As usual, my square was too small (I am a very tight knitter), so I bought another set of needles (and more accessories) - not entirely sure why, as I DO HAVE needles at home. By the time I left John Lewis for the third and last time, I had spent four hours there and the staff and I had got to know each other rather well.

I'm generally not a big fan of knitting with cotton as it's less forgiving of imperfections, and this yarn has a tendency to twist, so actual knitting is interrupted too often by me having to untwist the yarn. But I am captivated by the colour and I just love the feel of this cotton/microfibre/silk mix as it moves through my fingers, it's like knitting with cream. Although the pattern is simple, after only 20 rows in, I was stumped by the positioning of the shaping decreases, resulting in me having to undo and redo the first five inches or so several times. I have searched the internet for other bloggers knitting the same pattern, but mostly came up with DB's baby cardigan in the same pattern. In the end, I fudged a solution, which although not perfect, is just about acceptable. Nevertheless, it's disheartening to encounter a problem right at the beginning, and I just hope I don't get to the end and suddenly realise my mistake!

Finally on the knitting front, coming back from our lovely break in Devon was bearable only because I knew a package from Get Knitted, would be waiting for me. My knitting goodies consisted of two lavender sachets, an organza bag, the Sock it to Me - Conversion Guide, two sock patterns (including that for My Oh So Beautiful Socks) and two skeins of Lorna's Laces Shephed Sock yarn in the purple club colourway. It is simply beautiful, and all I do is stare at it. I will post pictures as soon as technology allows me to!

Normal service will resume shortly

2006-07-20T03:53:00.000+01:00

So, yesterday was the hottest recorded July day in Britain. However, according to the Beeb, forecasters expect a bank of showers coming in from the South West to cool things down on Wednesday night and into Thursday, but the weekend should still be very warm and humidity will be high.

Typical. Just as I am off to spend a couple of days in the, um, South West, relaxing and being pampered, it rains.

See you in a few days, and hope you don't all melt with the heat. Really, ice cream helps.

Progress report

2006-07-05T02:02:00.000+01:00

Alas, with just under five days left to the final whistle, I fear that I have failed my World Cup Knitting challenge. Current state of play can be seen on the right, First Socks no 1 almost finished, and First Socks no 2 not even started.

Still, it's been a busy month on the social front, and I have been working on Marlowe as well. Even without these excuses, and despite my poor performance at the Cup, I am absolutely bursting with pride at this picture. My First Sock, and just look how beautifully he is turning out.

My sock has shrunk

2006-07-01T15:17:00.000+01:00

I had successfully completed the heel flap and shaping, picked up stiches for and was already shaping the instep, when I simply lost concentration of where I was. I decided to undo some rows, but the more I unraveled, the more difficult I found it to pick up and start again. So, as you can see from the mound of yarn to the right of my suddenly shortened sock, I have gone right back to the cuff. I am so behind schedule.

Anyway, it's an absolutely glorious day, hot and sunny, but I am staying in. I've been out almost every night this week, so am grateful for a day relaxing. A certain football match is on in just over half an hour, so I will take up First Sock and try to catch up. (I'm not really interested in the World Cup, but secretly will be pleased if Ingerlund win today).

2006-06-30T23:36:00.000+01:00

No posting for a couple of weeks............ been remarkably busy. Here's a quick catch-up:

1) A visit to Bath to watch Somerset v Middlesex. My only experience of cricket so far has been trips to Lords. Bath couldn't have been more different: smaller obviously, which gives the whole experience a more informal feel. Jon introduced me to the tradition of going on to the pitch during lunch, where children played cricket with their dads and men stood admiring the wicket. Apparently, you could do this at Lords up until about ten years ago.

Jon had prepared a wonderful picnic, and during the game, I did my bit for KIP and worked on Marlowe (which Jon found very amusing). When it got a little chilly, I tried to get him to put the finished back around his neck and shoulders, but he was too embarrassed. After the match, we walked around the beautiful city centre, and then drove through the surrounding picturesque countryside.

2) A trip to Lords to watch Middlesex v Surrey. Packed ground, lots of silver-haired gentlemen in blazers, completely different atmosphere. Always very amusing to watch a certain contingent attempt a Mexican wave, which is never really taken up by the majority anyway, and which completely dies when it reaches the members' enclosure, where half the blazers are asleep and the other half resolutely sit with their arms crossed, scowling at the riff-raff allowed in these days

3) Lunch with Jon at the White Hart in Chalfont St Peter. Perfect pub with a restaurant and garden at the back and really amazing food. Consistently award-winning.

Consequently, I have been neglecting my sock knitting. I picked it up again earlier in the week, and got as far as the instep, but lost concentration somewhere and am going to have to undo right back to the ankle. Only 10 days to the end of the Knitting World Cup and I haven't even finished the first sock. Anyway, here is a picture I took of it, before I turned the heel. (Apologies for poor picture quality.)

Knitting World Cup 2006

2006-06-16T11:05:00.000+01:00

Hooray, I've signed up for the Knitting World Cup. My project will be my challenging First Socks. More later.......

Stairway to heaven

2006-06-14T00:15:00.000+01:00

A very depressing day at work - I could have done with a glass of wine and chat at Angelknits tonight, but had to forego the pleasure and come home to do (unrelated) stuff. All the way home, my mind was going over the events of the day, and preparing myself for the not so nice evening ahead. I think I was muttering to myself as I climbed the stairs to my flat.........

....... to find a parcel propped against the door - my Web of Wool sock starter kit had arrived! (So quick too, how fab are they?)

It sounds daft, but this wonderful surprise completely elevated my mood, I think I might even have let out a cry. I didn't open it straight away, just concentrated on stuff for the next hour, had a lovely shower, then sat down with my goodies. I had ordered the yarn and kit myself, but, what with this being my first sock, didn't know what to expect. Inside was a ball of Opal yarn, a pattern, a leaflet about Woolfest and five tiny needles. So I cast on.

One and a half hours later (half of BB6 and Lost), I had only knitted two rows of the rib. It's sooo hard handling four needles and goodness only knows what the fifth is for. Socks 101 says that eventually you find a comfortable way without the needles stabbing you in the palm, but quite frankly I'm surprised I didn't lose an eye tonight. But I am sooo enjoying it. I can see that what I am doing at the moment isn't particularly complicated, but it's all new and challenging enough to keep me very, very happy.

Update at 1:22 am
Knitting more quickly now, although still fiddly and still on the rib. I also know what the fifth needle is for - picking up those pesky dropped stitches! *smile*

Can you spare any change?

2006-06-10T16:05:00.000+01:00

I knew that this month was going to be tight financially, but only nine days into the month, I have just £75 left, and that's not even my money, but what's left of my overdraft.

eeeek - a quick review of what I will need to dispense with:

1) Driving to work (petrol, parking and congestion charge = one small fortune
2) Pizza - I am astonishly lazy at the weekends and the pizza delivery boys are my best friends. My figure and my heart will thank me for this hiatus.
3) Going to the spa tonight with Sarah. Can't even remember the last time I pampered myself, looks like I will have to wait a little longer.
4) the Debbie Bliss tab button cardigan from wish you were here. Very annoyed about this, as I had planned to have it ready in time for my department's away day at the end of the month.

The fourth one is quite distressing; knitting is essential to my wellbeing, what with all the crap going on in my life at the moment. I still have the top of the front of Marlowe to complete, but my OCD dictates that I can't work on Marlowe at home. Luckily, just minutes before I checked my balance, I had just ordered the sock starter kit from Web of Wool. I can't wait till it arrives - I've never knitted a sock before and I think the complexity and size will be the perfect project to keep me occupied till pay day, when I will book a day of beauty treatments, and buy lots of yarn.

Right, I've been indoors all day missing the glorious sunshine, and it's a beautiful evening - am off to a barbecue tonight. A few bottles is small outlay for a good time with good people.

The Big Knit In

2006-06-05T00:48:00.000+01:00

After several hours in traffic (roadworks in Kings Cross, Angel and the A13), I finally got to the The Big Knit In at Brighton's Grand Parade campus. I arrived too late to see the speed trials or the fashion show (gah), but managed to look around at the various tables and the yummy yarns and books (so much better than on line). Really, really wanted to buy the latest Debbie Bliss book, so that I can start on the tab button jacket, but without any yarn to start knitting, it would have been too frustrating.

I contented myself with a glass of wine and sat and knitted a few rows of Marlowe. Then I visited the art exhibition in the foyer. If I'm honest, I don't spend a lot of time in galleries, but I really did enjoy this one, partly because of the work on show, but also it took me back to another age. In particular, I remembered my first love, Peter's exhibits, while he was an art student - I even featured in them - and all the hard work and preparation for them.

More traffic on the way back, but really, the weather was so fantastic the entire day, you couldn't really complain. I even managed to get a couple of chores done, so all in all, an eventful day for me!

Gin and sausages

2006-06-01T23:30:00.000+01:00

Went for a drink with Jon tonight - it was a very mild evening so we went to the Edinboro Castle and sat outside in the garden. I very happily did some knitting, and Jon even helped wind the yarn, when I had to unravel a rew rows. An excellent evening.

More knitting groups

2006-05-20T14:46:00.000+01:00

Ok, so I'm a bad bad blogger........ been silent for a few weeks.

However, have been busy on the knitting front: Marlow (as someone called it, a vision in purple) is coming along nicely. The majority of both the back and front is done, and I am currently nearing the top of one sleeve (which I must have undone and restarted a hundred times).

More interestingly, I have been very sociable both on and off the knitting scene. I have been to Angelknits a couple of times - a very nice, friendly (and expert!) bunch in a cool pub - and I have tried - albeit failed - to go to a couple of other groups.

This week I tried to go to the iknitlondon meet in Soho. The bar was very crowded, although I could see some knitters already there. Being a bit shy, I waited outside for Nikki, who had said she might be coming too. As I was waiting, a couple of girls came out, "I know they're very trendy with their knitting, but do they have to do it at the bar?" A few minutes later, a couple came out saying, "how cool, sitting there knitting!"

Two out of three brake lights on my car are not working (as pointed out by a police office and a white van man on separate occasions), so can't travel until that's sorted, but I am still hoping to visit as many groups in London as possible, even if only for the one time - trying to show support in my small fashion.

Knitting groups

2006-04-26T23:35:00.000+01:00

So I finally plucked up the courage and went to my first knitting group. No, that's a lie, I finally plucked up the courage and went to a knitting group and stayed.

I didn't leave the office till half past seven, hit awful traffic in Camden Town, ran out of petrol (causing a nerveracking stint up Camden High Street to Chalk Farm Road), then had to swing by home to pick up my knitting, so by the time I actually got to the NW k2tog group, most of the knitters were about to leave. However, a kind soul made me feel very welcome and chatted to me, and I even got my needles out and added a few more rows to the back.

The venue is nice, a large Starbucks with loads of sofas and comfy chairs, although the group sat around tables. Everyone seemed very friendly, so I am hoping to go again in a couple of weeks. Thought I would try to go to Angelknits next week.

2006-04-23T14:58:00.000+01:00

Hello.