woolly ninja

Socks socks socks

2012-01-11T12:35:00.016Z

I am woefully short on handknit socks, last count 2 pairs - one knit by me and the other by Karen (thank you Karen) so when a year long knit-a-long was mentioned at my LYS the fabulous Knitting Hut I immediatley said yes.

We read lots of sock books and looked at a million sock patterns, then voted in six categories for the socks we want to knit this year. We finally settled on these six.

Left to right top row: Java, Almondine, Hedwig and Freinds Left to right bottom row: Carretta Carretta, Cat , Monkey

Due to the voting there wrere two draws for first place so we can choose which to knit.
Instead of Java - Francie, instead of Almondine - Van dyke
We have picked the Monkey as our first sock (we met over champagne just after new year to decide) the descision was based on the fact that it is a quick and easy sock. I have knit a pair of monkeys before plus one loan monkey which never had a mate (maybe I should finish that pair too!) so I wanted to make it a little more interesting. I chose to knit n0-purl monkeys and subsituted an eye of partridge slip stitch heel.

We are all knitting with different yarn as well so that we use up stash. I cast on with Pagewood Farms Yukon sock yarn (merino/bamboo/nylon mix) in Sky Blue Pink colour way It looked colourful but not too much in the skein, but now I am knitting it I can see that it's a bit too bright for me generally, too many different colours.
I suppose I could overdye them when finished but it's only socks - nobody will know when they are in shoes! The yarn itself is very soft and has a sheen from the bamboo, it is slightly splitty and I should change needles to a blunter set but I really like the feel on these ones (Lantern Moon sox stix in rosewood)

If you would like to join the knit-a-longs, please join the group on Ravelry.

Honey Coated

2011-11-18T10:45:00.008Z

This years winter sweater for my godson

Whitfield shorty by Anne Hansen

Malabrigo Rios in Sunset, 3 skeins

Leather buttons from John Lewis

Wonderwool Wales

2011-05-02T00:14:00.015+01:00

A few snaps from my visit to Wonderwool Wales, mum and I drove to Wales and stayed in a youth hostel near Pen Y Fan. We stayed there last year too but had a room to ourselves, but this year was the start of the school holidays and the hostel was very busy. Sharing a room with nine others is something I got over years ago, so I won't be doing that again!

This is the view that greeted us at the show ground, the day was very warm and sunny.

Some of the sheepy participants in the show:

Shetland Hebredian (I think!)

Longwool Ram, he was very hot and panting in the warm weather, his dreadlocks are brilliant, I am sad Ididn't buy any coloured longwool but I am not so fond of it when spun.

I purchased a couple of things, a Shetland fleece from the coloured sheep stall. Hopefully it will be good for my class during this summers Knitnation , I am very excited to have signed up for some classes including spinning Shetland fleece for lace with Judith Mackenzie McCuin.

They also had this super cute sheep farm, each one is knitted from the yarn made from the fleece of that breed (not sure if the sheep dog is made from doggie yarn though!).

I also bought some gorgeous grey alpaca from this stall, the fleece is from an Alpaca named Gelert, my Welsh cousins had a dog of the same famous name so I could not resist.

Long time no post

2011-03-27T12:34:00.007+01:00

Just because I haven't posted doesn't mean I have been sitting on my hands. I finally finished spinning this handspun for a sweater, I've been plotting what the sweater/cardi should look like and have cast on.

The fibre is from Felt Studio and is a glorious mishmash of fibres (merino, silk, camel, angelina) and colours (blue, silver, azure, purple), the overall effect is a heathery silver blue with subtle sparkle and tweedy highlights.

Not the most even spinning - batts make for texture. I am knitting it from two balls at a time to try and even the tension out somewhat, lets see what happens!

A Budgie with the muddy blues

2010-08-13T09:04:00.015+01:00

I have wanted to make a Budgie sweater since Grumperina released the pattern, her blog is a favourite of mine and I read it almost every day.

This was also a serendipitous coming together of yarn and pattern, I have had the multi coloured 'mud season' yarn from Spunky Eclectic club since March 2008. I had tried to knit a pair of socks but the colours overwhelmed the pattern and the yarn is sports weight so the sock was thicker than I like. However using it in stripes enables the colours to really show up beautifully and not become too much.

The turquoise yarn is a Rowan RYC Cashsoft 4ply, I wanted to use this colour but it only came in 4ply which was very thin. I ended up using the yarn double so it is thicker than the sports but actually that makes these stripes pop a little more and I really like how is looks.

The pattern is really well written with excellent tips on the best way to sew up the sleeve seams to keep the stripes even and how to shorten the zip to fit.

I love the way the stripes curve round the yoke, so did everyone in the office - I have requests for 4 more!

My favourite part is the icord in the mud season colour that you sew the zip into. I think the colours almost look like the pictures of the earth from outer space.

The carpet is the office one - hence why it is so ugly, I didn't manage to take any pictures at home.

The recipient of this garment is not the usual person (my godson) but the son of a good friend from work. When Aiden was born, I knitted a cute little top for him and when his mum, Bev, came back to work she said how much she loved it and would I knit him something else, now he had outgrown it. Who could resist such knitting flattery? I started this some time ago and then snapped the needle I was using, I put it away in disgust. Over the weekend I went through my stash and WiPs and pulled a few out, this was amongst them. It only needed one icord edge, seams and a zip to be finished, so I got it done - very satisfying!

Pattern: Budgie by Grumperina

Size: 12 months

Yarn: Mud season by Spunky Eclectic and RYC Cashsoft

Needles: 3mm and 2.75 mm

January Shawl - Stormy Seraphim

2010-04-30T21:00:00.002+01:00

There is a Ravelry group called 10 in 2010 which means knitting 10 shawls this year, I decided to join and even though I may not knit 10 it is great to join in and see everybody elses efforts, I have discovered some great new patterns this way. I have not posted my first shawl, so here we go.

This is Seraphim by Miriam Felton, it a great intuitive pattern to knit, I really enjoyed knitting it and have worn it a great deal.

The yarn is Opulence from the Woolen Rabbit in Stormy. I can't say enough good things about Kim from the Woolen Rabbit - great customer service and a genuinely lovely person, her yarn is pretty fabulous too. The muted, subtle colourways are gorgeous and the all the yarns I have used have been great to knit with, Opulence is a silk/merino mix and feels almost cool to the touch but keeps you lovely and toasty warm.

I really like how the plain section at the top of the shawl gradually become more patterned, no harsh break between stockinette and lace sections

I love the feather pattern here, they flow beautifully into each other.

Pattern: Seraphim bu Miriam Felton
Size: Large
Yarn: Opulence from the Woolen Rabbit in Stormy colourway, 2 and a tiny bit skeins
Needles: 3mm

Commuter Crack of Dawn Shawl

2010-04-23T17:15:00.000+01:00

I work in London and have a 2 hour commute each way most days, I also travel quite a bit mostly for work. Both these activities require different types of knitting; commutes need simple projects that I can pick up and put down easily, where as long flights mean more complex projects and are brilliant for lace - minimal interruptions and a small light project in my carry-on. Well lets be honest two projects in the carry-on and one in the suitcase just in case, this policy seems to have paid off this week being marooned abroad - I had almost finished a baby cardigan until I snapped a needle but no worries I pulled out a lace stole and started working on that instead.

My commuter projects tend to take a longer time to complete as I reserve them exclusively for that purpose, generally they are too dull for knitting at any other time. I have just completed the daybreak shawl, beautiful shaded oranges and reds, paired with natural stripes, the yarn does all the work so the knitting is very simple.

I gave the shawl to my mum, who is kindly modeling in the photos - nicely done mum!

Half of the bound off edge is handspun as I had run out off the Zauberball yarn, it is a Blue Face Leicester 2 ply that matched the colour of the cream part of the Zauberball.

Pattern: Daybreak shawl by Stephen West, I am naming mine crack of dawn because it makes me giggle.

Size: Large

Yarn: Zauberball - Burnt Almond and Cookies n Cream colourway

Needles: 3mm

There are worse places to be stuck

2010-04-20T22:37:00.002+01:00

I am currently in Helsinki and stuck here until the airport opens again (I have flight bookings for Thursday and Friday this week just in case). I am very very lucky that I was here for work, my accommodation is being paid for and my travel arranged by the lovely Lisa from CWT travel (I talk to her every day- she is an angel)

The weather here has been pretty kind given that it was -28 the last time I visited. We made the most of our impromptu weekend.

This is the one of the views on my walk on Sunday.

There is also an interesting knitting shop near here, Sypressi which I visited. I also managed to get to Hobbooks to buy a book on Estonian mittens (in Estonian) and the gorgeously photographed book Jamalangasta! I had seen this book on Jane Brockets blog and knew I wanted to buy it.

I am planning on visiting another yarn shop after work today, Menita and perhaps a longer look around Hobbooks - a lovely owner of Sypressi showed me an amazing Estonian knitting book on Haapsalu shawls that I think I spotted in there. I should also add that she gave me a lace shawl pattern with the yarn I bought, it is charted and in Finnish but looks beautiful so I will give it a go- such a lovely lady and so generous.

Saturday we decided to take the ferry to Tallinn and explore the old city - expect to pay 40 euros for a return trip, it takes 2 hours on the slow boat. The amount and quality of all kinds of crafting was stunning. The old city was a little touristy but not overwhelming.

We visited a couple of yarn shops where I bought some spinning fibre and some loppi like unspun yarn in amazing colours.

I did purchase a pair of mittens for 150EE which is around 10 Euros, I was shocked that these were clearly hand knit by somebody with great skill for such a minimal amount.

Then we found this place

Market stalls selling hand knits, the little old ladies who were minding the stalls were wrapped up against the cold but knitting furiously. The pieces were heartbreakingly cheap and I could not buy anything, some things were clearly hand knit again with great skill and others machine made.

The market experience made me quite sad but further into the city was a craft area near St Catherines Passage with many crafts represented, leather work, millinery, patchwork and quilting, stained glass, pottery and many more.

The makers all sold their work and made it in these spaces, it was fascinating to see the skills in use. The glass blowing was done with bright and vivid colours by a short round Russian man in his sixties, alternately smoking a skimpy hand rolled cigarette and drinking water from one of his beautiful creations.

The prices were much more representational of the skill and time needed to produce them, but still low compared to the UK. I felt more comfortable to buy a things here.

Picture of the medieval city walls, Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, is possibly named after taani linnus, which means Danish castle. The Castle in question was built by King Waldemar of Denmark in the 13th century. There are other thoughts on the name of the city but this was my favorite.

The old city is unspoiled but overlooked by a more modern one. The buildings are beautiful with interesting colour and texture everywhere.

We finished off our day in the very kitch and touristy Olde Hansa, which to my surprised I really enjoyed. The food was excellent and the beer was delicious (try the cinnamon) - it also comes served in pot mugs. We shared a starter of pate, cured meats, quails eggs and herb cheese with hazelnut bread and then a main of hunters sausages (mix of bear, wild boar and elk meat) with smoked sauerkraut, lingonberry sauce, ginger swede, onion marmalade and horseradish cream - delicious.

We didn't get to see everything Tallin has to offer but I plan to return.

Alberta in Paris

2010-04-02T10:34:00.001+01:00

Last week was my parents 40th wedding anniversary, they went to Paris for a weeks holiday to celebrate.

In honour of their ruby wedding I knit my father a new vest, I hate calling them tank tops - it reminds me of something worn in the 60s from brown and orange acrylic yarn. One of his more conservative friends said she thought it was psychedelic colours so maybe I was channeling the sixties in some way.

Below is an image from a patisserie in the centre of Paris, the vest seems to have grown a little so may need some adjustments!

I used the lovely Alberta pattern by Jared Flood, I knit with the handspun that I blogged about here as well as some dark navy Rowan Pure Wool Aran (shade 683 Marine) for the contrast colour and Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran in an unknown purple colour for the trim.

The pattern was great, very comprehensive and I learnt how to crochet seeks for this as the aran weight yarn is not the best steeking material without firm anchoring.

I am now really tempted to knit a few more of these as the mixture of handspun and commercial yearn was really fun and the more exciting colours I have spun can be toned down to a more masculine palette with muted additions.

The Eiffel Tower shot! - definitely need to shorten this, I will cut off (!) the rib as it has grown outward too, cut off 4 inches of the bottom of the vest to remove some of the length, re-knit the rib from the bottom up and finally graft it back to the new bottom of the vest - simple (cough!)

Pattern: Alberta by Jared Flood
Size: calculated from gauge to 40" chest
Yarn: Handspun and commercial mix
Needles: 5mm

Yummy mummy hat

2010-02-11T17:00:00.000Z

I decided that the warmers needed a matching hat and so I made one up. Using the design elements from the yummy mummies I made a few calculations and cast on. the pictures make it look a little oddly shape but on the head it looks quite sweet and fits well, even If I personally prefer a tighter fit to my hats.

I think I will knit another and perhaps record how I made it, as I can't be the only one who would like a hat to match the mitts

Pattern: improvised based on the Yummy Mummy Wristwarmers

Size: one size - mediumish, I will make the next one slightly smaller to hug the head more tightly

Yarn: Blue Sky Alpaca, Alpaca and Silk 1 Skein (About 1 but I need to re-knit, I used the left overs from the mitts plus some from another skein)

Needles: 2.5mm

Yummy Mummies

2010-02-05T13:53:00.000Z

A simple knit for Christmas pressies. Yummy Mummy wristwarmers, designed by Alexandra Brink(no website) and a free pattern on Ravelry. I first saw this pattern when a friend called Mo turned up wearing them - as she is a none knitter I thought they had been bought from a shop but it turned out that Sue had made them for her. (Mo is now a knitter - another convert)

Super cute and easy to remember pattern, I knit the first pair in Blue Sky Alpacas, Alpaca and Silk, colourway Ruby. The yarn can be a little splitty but the texture and sheen is worth it, it also has a slight prickle when knit up that is doesn't have in the skein - a quick was in Soak fixed this.

Mum liked these so much she requested a pair for Christmas too, so the same yarn in colourway Amethyst, to match a purple Koolhaas hat the she made (well she knit the main part and I did the the top as the 'complex' decreases were apparently confussing - actually I knit the top twice as m*ths ate a hole in it and it had to be reknit grrrrr).

My favourite part is the twisted rib on the underside - silly me I didn't photograph it! It's very neat and sleek looking

The red pair were made exactly as the pattern suggested.

The purple pair were made much longer - 2 skeins of yarn, one went into each mitt. The original knits up slightly short for an average sized person, luckily the recipient of the red pair is very petite.

I recently saw the red pair in use and they have gone very baggy, this hasn't happened with the purple pair - maybe it is the amount of use!

I knit these on 2.5mm DPNs and since I am a loose knitter I perhaps should have gone down a size to make the final mitts less prone to bagging.

Overall an enjoyable quick knit but after two pairs (and a matching red hat, but more about that later) I was pretty bored, I had bought some pink to make myself a set but they will have to wait until I have recoverd from pattern overdose.

I am also tempted to do some increases in the rib as you get further up the arm, the plumper armed among us may notice the pattern twists when it encounters increased arm diameter, this would be more important if you wanted to make them longer. Since I was deadline knitting I didn't want to fiddle too much but when I make some for myself I will.

Pattern: LinndaK's Yummy Mummy Wristwarmers by Alexandra Brink
Size: one size and increased length
Yarn: Blue Sky Alpaca, Alpaca and Silk 2 Skeins (plenty left over if you knit the specified size)
Needles: 2.5mm

New year, old knits

2010-01-06T11:54:00.000Z

Happy new year to you all. I had a restrained new year with my friend Sue, knitting, drinking champagne, chatting and watching silly TV. I finished off a sweater for me but more about that another day.

I've started doing a project called 10 in 2010 which means I'll be knitting 10 shawls this year, I would like to make it but given what work has in store I some how don't think it will happen, it's a nice target and if I get a couple done I will consider it a challenge met.

So the first Christmas knits to be blogged is a cardigan for my godson. This was knit with my own handspun, I feel so pleased saying that - this is my first garment from my own yarn, I've made plenty but small skeins that make small projects or gifts nothing that makes anything more substantial. I really enjoyed the process, I had 100g of delightful fibre from the Yarn Yard as part of the Socktopus SoFA club - a greeny coloured alpaca and bluefaced leicester mix. I liked it so much I managed to buy two more braids of the same fibre in a slightly brighter green.

This was spun and made into a two ply yarn at around aran weight. The SoFA colour and the other brighter colour each made up a single ply for 200g of the yarn and the last 100g I plied the brighter colour with itself.

I then knit a top down seamless cardigan striping the yarn over the body and half way down the sleeves (where I ran out of one yarn) I finished the sleeves and bottom with twisted rib.

I picked up and knit a twisted rib button band with mitered neck line - I think the neck hole looks small but Leo tells me it will be fine (I hope so!)

A small blue monster purchased at Wilferts in Copenhagen was added, you can see the subtle stripes really well in this picture

Button bands were lined with green satin ribbon (from Liberty) and I added giant snaps purchased at the iKnit day in 2009 from Textile Garden. They have really lovely buttons and bits but a really user unfriendly website - a good search function would make such a difference rather than trawling through pages of buttons to find something you want (although doing that makes you buy more!)

Finally I added one of my new labels from rememberwynn on etsy.

All in all I am pretty pleased with this project and hope that it will be well worn. I love the fibre and the beautiful colour, I don't wear green as it really doesn't suit me so it is always a pleasure to knit with as a something a bit different. I now have plans to spin some more larger amounts of yarn for bigger projects and I am really looking forward to it.

I've been knitting - honest!

2009-12-19T00:52:00.000Z

Really I have but as I am pretty broke this year I am knitting or making as many Christmas gifts as possible, so I really can't show them to the blog. No really I can't, since the recipients are the only people who read this (plus Fleegle, whom I now love a great deal - you're brilliant!) plus I've taken no photos yet either.

However I am aware that I have not blogged for a while and that is rather dull, how can I hope to increase readership if I never write anything.

I have booked to go to the knitting day in London this summer with quite a few classes that I am looking forward to. I have not as yet booked onto the UK Knit Camp - I am not sure I will, Sterling is a very long way (yes I know most people are coming from America, Canada and the rest of Europe and it is much further for them) but I'd have to pay for it now (hmm not happening - why can't these things be spread out) - but...... Norah Gaughan is teaching!!! ohh ohh ohh and quite a few other fantastic teachers. I may wait and see if there are spaces left later in the year (seriously - not likely, but I can hope), not really any spinning teachers though which is what I would love to do (or dying or weaving!). There are some interesting classes for people interested in self publishing patterns which would probably be very interesting too.

Blogs without pictures are dull, so a few randoms that should brighten up the page. Some handspun from Spunky Eclectic club fibre (January 2009) colour Twilight, fibre organic merino. I loved being part of the club but I stopped because I just was not spinning what I was sent only increasing the stash, that is a shame when others would enjoy the club and spin things up and I was sitting there taking up a spot.

Anyway this is 300g at around aran weight, I purchased some navy blue aran to compliment this and will be making something like Jared Floods Alberta vest, Jared promised me in the summer that the pattern would be available soon but I might just have to get on with it without one.

2 ply, spun on my ladybug, split the roving into two and spun without much pre-drafting, tried to get the colour changes to match at least a little when plying.

How can grownup man can look cool in a panda hat?

2009-10-26T10:40:00.000Z

One of my dearest friends from work has left the London office to go to the Beijing office, he will be very much missed but I hope to see him again soon. He did ask "You won't put this on your blog will you?" Sorry Zach - you looked so awesome I couldn't leave this out.

Quite a while ago Zach asked me to knit him a panda hat and because he is an industrial designer and uber cool we spent quite a lot of time discussing the shape and the texture. What he didn't know was the final hat was in fact number four - the others were not what I wanted at all.

I like to think of myself as quite stylish and glamorous but looking at the photographs from Fridays leaving party I pale to insignificance next to the designers I work with. They are such photogenic creatures, doesn't really help that I always look like a half witted piglet in photos but....

How does an over 6 foot tall man look good in a furry panda hat? Here is how:

There will be a fifth incarnation of this hat - no pink in the ears and a different yarn, less sheep like and more fur like, as Zach has requested. I think I will need to block this better as one side has a slight bump that I don't like so much. I may also need to write the pattern out as well as quite a few others in the office would like a version of this hat - I may start taking orders!

Colour wheel quilt

2009-10-12T01:00:00.000+01:00

We had a lovely weekend at Champneys, blissed out in fact. Leo flew home on Monday morning but before she left I gave her the quilt I had sewn for her sons 2nd birthday, she very kindly took some photos in their gorgeous light filled flat when she got home.

The quilt is from last minute patchwork and quilted gifts by Joelle Hoverson, I love this book it makes me want to sew more, however there is nothing last minute about this quilt - it took me a while!

It was my first quilt and I did need some extra tips from Mum but it has inspired me to make something else for another friend but that is remaining a secret for the moment.

Joelle is generally an inspiring kind of girl - check out her other book, which I also enjoyed, I think it may be because of the fantastic photography that makes the items look so beautiful, the knitting patterns themselves are not particularly intriguing or difficult. There is also the regularly updated website, it can be a little weird and random but there are some fun, quick and interesting pieces to inspire.

The quilt recipient does apparently like it, which was the main goal of this project - he's doing a pretty awesome job of naming all the colours and I want to wish him a wonderful day so:

Happy 2nd Birthday Inigo - I hope you enjoy your party!

Owlet Jumper

2009-09-20T18:53:00.000+01:00

I have been waiting to publish this post but the recipients mummy reads this blog and I wanted it to be a surprise.

I've travelled to Finland again this week with work and I am of course staying with my lovely and generous best friend from University, who's son is my one and only best godson in the whole universe - the jumper is for him, the first in this winters wardrobe from me.

The pattern is almost unbearably cute and I love it, the whole sweater was knit in one weekend, owlet by Kate Davies. The yarn is Debbie Bliss Rialto Aran in the colour mango, lovely and soft to work with, I hope it will keep nicely and not pill like other DB yarns - the twist seems fairly tight.

I made a few tweaks to the pattern as I progressed but that was personal preference and not any problem with the pattern.

Sewing on the buttons for eyes was the only annoying bit - 32 eyes since you asked! The buttons are from the Cloth House in Soho - they have a pretty good selection of trims and buttons as well as lovely fabric.

If I were to knit this again I would change the decreases on the arms as a personal preference I am less fond of the sharp decrease at the end of the sleeve and prefer gradual decreases down the whole length.

The green opalescence seems to glow with the yellow back ground. MMmmmm pretty! It's quite interesting how very slight variations in the knit and the way the eyes are sewn give the owls different facial expressions, third full owl from the left is the most intelligent looking whilst his two next door neighbors have wider set eyes and appear more gormless, fifth from the lefts eyes are lower giving him a more bookish appearance, athropomorphism in knitted owls.

Pattern: Owlet by Kate Davies

Size: Largest of the baby sizes

Yarn: Debbie Bliss Rialto Aran in Mango 5 balls

Needles: 4.5mm, 6mm and 6.5mm

Birthday socks - part 2

2009-09-06T13:36:00.001+01:00

Well it has taken a while to publish this post! I knit these socks for my mothers birthday in May - you've already seen the socks for Grannies birthday and hers is the day after Mums.

These are the ever fabulous Monkey socks by Cookie A and I feel like the last knitter in the world to actually make these. The yarn was intended for the lovely Over the Garden Wall socks from the Socktopus club and came as part of the club kit, I will be knitting these socks but the yarn was perfect for Mum and I knew she would not wear something with the lacey toes like the Over the Garden Wall socks. So I bought another skein of the same yarn and used the first to knit these.

The yarn was as predicted absolutely delicious, from my latest favourite dyer Artists Palette Yarns her colours are very clever and subtle and the yarns are gorgeous.

The pooling in this picture looks really obvious but in person it is more muted. These were a super quick knit only a couple of days for each sock and not spending that long per day knitting, it must be the easily memorised pattern. I want a pair of these for myself, I tried these on and need to add an extra repeat to the foot pattern to fit my slightly bigger tootsies.

Pattern: Monkey by Cookie A

Yarn: Sweet Feet from the Artists Palette colour way Socktopus March 2009 club

Needles: Size 2.25mm Lantern Moon sock sticks in ebony wood.

A dunga-dunga-dunga rees

2009-06-15T09:21:00.000+01:00

I made these on a clapped out sewing machine - don't look too closely at the seams. They are being proudly modeled by my godson and seriously brightening up Helsinki, even though it is nearly mid-summer and the sun is actually shinning there! His mummy tells me that he gets stares on the tram and in the park when wearing them.

A clothkits kit again - should have been predictable that a '70's classic would excite me. They were really easy apart from the sewing machine issue and the straps. The strap difficulties came because I thought I knew better and didn't follow the pattern, this would have put a couple of lines of stitches down the middle of the strap all the way through which would have made them less pretty. I decided to sew a tube and then turn them the right way round - the material is quite stiff and hard wearing making my 'smart idea' a mistake, it took 4 hours to turn them back around while I broke all my nails, stuck myself a dozen or more times with the knitting needle I used to help me (ouch!) and threw them accross the room in annoyance. If they hadn't been for this little bod I would have given up, but he looks so cute I am glad I did it.

Cookie news flash

2009-04-29T23:42:00.000+01:00

I mentioned before that I went on a Cookie A workshop. Well I only took pictures of famous socks (monkey, pomatomus) and me touching them. Thankfully Alice had the brains to take pictures and look - I'm sitting next to Cookie at lunch. In case you're wondering, I did not behave like a starstruck Muppet (unlike accidentally stalking John Torrode or doing impressions of a koi carp at Nigel Slater) and we had an interesting conversation about having a colourway named after you (Cookie - cookie next door - STR, sadly discontinued) and having a sock named after you (Me - Bex - in Cookies new book - you all know that is a lie and it was just coincidence)

Birthday socks - part 1

2009-04-25T22:51:00.001+01:00

I am off to Denmark for my Mother and Mormors (Grandmothers) birthdays, I thought I would knit both of them pairs of socks as part of their presents.

First of all the socks for Mormor:

I picked a Cookie A pattern - I went to a class taught by her a few weeks ago, it was really inspirational and I learnt a great deal. Anyway the pattern is Trystero, beautiful, simple to knit and fits really well - I love the way the cables flow.

The yarn is Angel from the Natural Dye Studio, I think the colour was called cornflower and if it wasn't it should be, it almost glows with a etherial pale blue light, the alpaca and cashmere gives a beautiful halo, very soft and yummy. The yarn is quite thin and I perhaps should have used 2mm needles rather than the 2.25mm that I did use but I really don't like 2mm needles they make everything seem to take so much longer - it could be psychological though. The fabric feels quite delicate so I don't know how well it will stand up to hard wearing, these are intended as bed socks which means light wearing which shouldn't be a problem.

The verdict is that I want a pair of these socks for myself and I would definitely use the yarn again but not for socks - maybe a shawl.

Not a very new year.

2009-03-11T14:43:00.000Z

Guiltless blogging - I will not feel bad about the infrequent blogging, I do this for enjoyment not to make a living!

Anyway - lots of knitting and spinning not so much to show for it, I seem to give things away before I photograph it.

I finally sewed my skirt from clothkits:

Lovely to wear but the colours are impossible to photograph (well by me anyway!), very easy and quick to make. Only problem was getting the seam at the bottom to be even when wearing it, this is because my front and back are not the same shape, the back looks shorter if you go by the printed pictures and pattern as a guide. If you do it by measuring from the ground up the space between the scallop print edge and the hem is faaarrrr more at the back - the difference will be less if you have a smaller bottom I suspect. Love the lining they supplied (Liberty print) but it really doesn't work with the colour and print of the skirt - thankfully it is only me that knows this when I am wearing it.

All in all a quick and easy project, I already have another two kits in the cupboard to make and requests from a couple of people to make others. Actually what I really want to do is to make the little birds cardigan to go with mine.

A little beauty and brightness

2008-11-27T11:57:00.000Z

Life at the moment is getting harder for most of us and I could moan about the state of the ecconomy and the possibility of redundancy blah blah blah, but I won't.

I like to try and see little joyful moments in day to day life, I feel like a much richer and happier person for it.

A few from current ones:
The weather here has been simpley vile - cold rain, yet right now it is really sunny and I have the windows open for some fresh air.

Weekend before last my little godson got his mother and I up early on a Saturday, I'm not a morning person and weekend mornings are for sleeping in. Getting up early did mean that we got to our favourite resturant when it opened for breakfast, we didn't have to queue for a table and our breakfasts were served quickly and cooked perfectly. We also had a trip to Loop while we were in Islington.

love the sky blue plate, the eg really does look like the sun against it

Yesterday I worked late and on the way home I stopped by Buffy's beads in Kingly court. It was quiet and I very unusually had the shop to myself I ended up buying the most beautiful shell leaves and glass hearts that I will make into stitch markers for knitting friends and myself.

Monday morning I missed my breakfast (it's a struggle to get out of bed at the moment) and went to a really long meeting so I didn't get any lunch. At 3 o'clock I felt very hungry, so I went round to the closest coffee shop to my office and had a very naughty brownie and a delicious mint tea - yum!

I'm also spotting a trend for beauty in blogs so here are my top ten beautiful blogs (please point me in the direction of your top ten as well) I tried not to be too obvious about it as most people know about Brooklyntweed and the Yarnharlot and I often talk about others.

Elliphantom Knits

Inside A Black Apple

Ysolda

Chocolate and Zucchini

Jatta Soheltaa

HELLOmynameisHeather

Mustaa villa (black wool)

Dances with wool

Sixoneseven

Fig and Plum

And although it makes eleven I can't leave out Jane Brocket's new-ish blog - her images always make me smile.

Just one word

2008-11-18T11:55:00.000Z

I can be very verbose so when I saw this meme on the lovely Dee's blog I took up the challenge.
Admitedly I did cheat a little in places

Where is your mobile phone? sugically-attached
Where is your significant other? absent
Your hair color? blonde
Your mother? brilliant
Your father? grumpy
Your favorite thing? bed
Your dream last night? bizzare
Your dream goal? happiness
The room you’re in? big
Your hobby? knitting/snowbaording
Your fear? being found out!
Where do you want to be in 6 years? sailing
Where were you last night? sofa
What you’re not? relaxed
One of your wish-list items? drum carder
Where you grew up? geekdom
The last thing you did? commuted
What are you wearing? snuggly jumper
Your TV? old
Your pets? missed
Your computer? graaagghhhh
Your mood? graagghhhh! (see above)
Missing someone? boy
Your car? Johanne (z4)
Something you’re not wearing? glamour (I really want to say knickers but that would be a lie)
Favourite shop? knitting hut
Your summer? C**P!
Love someone? deffinatley
Your favourite color? stripes
When is the last time you laughed? to long
When is the last time you cried? last weekend

Leo's Hat

2008-11-05T13:03:00.000Z

I intended to give this hat to Leo as part of her birthday pressie, however my trip to Finland with work was cancelled at the last minute. I am therefor officially a bad friend and a very bad Godmother. Leo and her son's birthdays are very close together and I had intended to be with them for a few days just after the birthday dates. The first time she sees this hat will be on here - sorry Leo.

They will of course be receiving the gifts when I get to Finland (hopefully before Christmas!) - I could have posted them but one of the items is a very heavy wooden toy!

Back to the hat, the design is the soon to be classic Jarred Flood Habitat hat, knitted in RYC soft tweed, needles in size 4.5 mm for the rib and 5 mm for the main part of the hat (dpn's in 5mm for the crown)

I am committing tweed heresy now by saying - I love how tweed looks, nubbly, flecked, old world and fewer steps removed from the initial sheep than ordinary millspun. However I hate the itch factor, I can't wear it at all - even as a top layer it's prickly itch seems to permeate my inner layers and make me scratch, so forget knitting with it.

I was in one of the few big department stores that sells yarn, feeling all of the skeins when I found this - tweed without the scratch! Soft and lofty, nubbles of brighter blues and whites, but soft enough that I moved from stroking it with my hand to stroking it on my cheek. I immediately bought two balls in this pale grey blue and then went back and bought two more in the antique pink colour.

I know Leo's mum made her a hat this colour a while ago and I had admired it, sadly it met a felty end and now fits a teddy, so I decided to knit this.

I love Jared's designs, the subtle details really make the design sing, look at how the cables come together at the crown.

and how simple cables used together make a sum much more than the separate parts

The simple pattern can be knit on the train with no errors. I may even knit this again - for me.

Winter Warmer

2008-11-05T11:41:00.000Z

I'm feeling pretty unwell at the moment and the weather is not helping! Knitting warm woolly items and spinning snuggley yarn is just what I need.

I finished my hopscotch socks from Soctopus sock club, the yarn is lovely - a delicious one called Soft Spun Plus from Brooklyn Handspun , the colour way is toadstool and dyed for the club. The design is by Anna Bell, who has a lovely blog.

I made a few tiny alterations to the heel to try and make the pattern flow better out of the heel corner - I would say it was moderately successful.

You can't see the pattern until the socks are stretched on your feet, but this does make for a lovely smooshy sock. I actually liked this pattern so much I am making another pair with some yarn bought from Impulse of Delight. I highly recommend this site - really interesting seeing where the colour ideas come from for her yarn.

NaBloPoMo

2008-11-03T14:39:00.000Z

Even though I've already failed at the NaBloPoMo as today in the 3rd of the month, I am resolved to trying to Blog a bit more for many reasons:

The shorter days keep me indoors more

I want to record my knitting in this format

I want to record my spinning - oh yes, I have a new wheel and I am the proud owner of the lumpy bumpy yarn that will soon become a Greenham Common Women hat (although I will not become a Birkenstock wearing, brown rice and tofu eating person - what am I talking about I like tofu and brown rice!) No disrespect to the women of the peace camp!
I really enjoy the writing - I hated writing at school but I actually think it was more to do with the very dyslexic spelling and ending up with an essay covered in red pen. Essays contained as few words as possible when you know each wrong spelling will have to be written 100 times!

I may be able to curtail my online shopping habits if I spend more time blogging.
My very close friend Leo reads my blog and I miss her very very much since she moved to Helsinki - I should really write more for my one and only reader.

No pictures of my knitting today, just some from the Knitting and Stitching show. It was a a really great day, Mum and I went with a group of ladies from the Knitting Hut. I bumped into quite a few people I knew and very strangely a girl I went to sixth form with, who I have not seen since we left. We were quite good friends at school but had lost touch, Chloe has recently started crochet and I hope to get her knitting soon.

We learnt to extreme knit - Mum bought some needles and has been using them at home (mainly to prod Dad when he falls asleep and snores!) actually she finished her faux fur stole in 2 evenings - 10 balls of ironically delightful acrylic eyelash yarn made into something that is actually rather glamorous!

I also loved the crochet hyperbolic reef, a team were busy sewing pieces on all day. I was impressed by the use of maths in the crochet, the idea comes from the Institute for Figuring, the UK Reef is part of a wider international project to make a global Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef.

The original reef was inspired by the principles of hyperbolic crochet originally developed by Dr Daina Taimina. In 1997 she worked out how to make models of the geometry known as hyperbolic space using crochet. Until then most mathematicians had believed it was impossible to construct physical models of hyperbolic forms, although nature had been doing it for some time! Dr Taimina has written a book on the subject that will be available in January -I am looking forward to reading it.

Amy Butler

2008-08-13T12:44:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I went to Liberties to meet Amy Butler. She was absolutely lovely in person and as you may know from previous posts I really love her designs.

I took one of the colour and material designers from the office with me and she appeared to enjoy herself immensely. We had a chat with Amy, a look through her books and most importantly a stroke of all the beautiful fabrics. I restrained my impulse to buy meters of all of it.

I already own Modern Midwest which I love - there are no specific project in it but for inspiration it is beautiful. I bought the newest book Little Stitches for Little Ones - I'm not a baby person but the patterns and ideas are absolutely lovely, I am sure I will be making quite a few things from this. Amy's fabrics are quite retro in style - think 70's floral but with very fresh and modern colour palettes.

While I was in Liberty I had a look at the new Kaffe Fassett yarn for Rowan - Colourscape Chunky - it reminds me of Noro Kureyon with the long colour repeats and the colour ways are typical of Kaffe, it is much softer than the Noro and lacks the bits of hay too! To be honest I was not very excited by it - it's quite bulky and there is nothing new, it's been done before. It's a shame as the sock yarn he did for Regia is really interesting. I had a quick flick through the pattern book 'The Colourscape Chunky Collection' with designs by Sarah Hatton that accompanies the yarn and was quietly underwhelmed by that too. Maybe it will grow on me.

Speaking of Noro - has anybody out there tried the silk garden sock yarn? I haven't found anywhere in the UK that stocks it yet, I have seen comments on Ravelry about the great colours but nothing about the softness, splitiness or anything else. I am using the Kureyon sock for a pair of Ziggys any I actually really like it - very woolly, but the thick and thin texture evens out when knitting it to give a surprisingly dense fabric.

Serious stash enhancement holiday

2008-08-10T11:43:00.000+01:00

I’ve been on holiday this week, it has been quite relaxing and lovely. I was supposed to go sailing for Cowes week but that all went a bit wrong and the least said about why the better. I have always wanted to visit Colinette and decided that a trip there coincided well with other family commitments.

We drove to all the way to the lovely village of Llanfair Caereinion in Powys, the weather was surprisingly lovely for Wales and the countryside was stunning. I should point out that it does not always rain in Wales but as a child all my half term holidays were spent in North Wales visiting relatives and my overall memory was of continuous rain, being made to hike up Snowdon yet again in the rain and being very very bored. The highlight of the half term was being allowed to go with my great uncle Gwill to the bakehouse – this branch of the family were known as Evans the Bakers as opposed to the other branches of Evans the coal and Jones the pub.

I loved going to the bakehouse at night to help prepare for the early morning shift – I learnt how to make custard for the tarts, knead bread in the huge machine and most importantly make bara brith – delicious Welsh bread with lots of dried fruit, served sliced, toasted and slathered in butter. I must have only been five or six when I first started going but I felt very grown up.

I was overcome by the yarn fumes in Colinette and completely forgot to take any pictures! Well I managed this one of the evening primrose in the village churchyard - I didn't realise they were this pretty and pinched a few seed pods for the garden. The village is small but lovely with a wonderful bakery where we had lunch.

Colinette was huge, the walls of different yarn and incredible colours were fabulous, beautiful examples of patterns hung everywhere to touch and try on. I was seduced by the jitterbug sock yarn and had trouble keeping to only a few skeins – I know the skeins are a little on the skimpy side length wise but the names and colours are totally seductive.

In the end I bought these three skeins – Adonis blue; a sea blue with touches of turquoise, purple and forest green, Alazarine; a bright pink with highlights of paler pink, lilac and pale blue and Vatican pie an incredible red that is both rich and bright, it almost glows. It was very very hard to leave behind the others that I longingly fondled but as you will see later in this post the sock yarn collection is getting out of control!

It was also really lovely to choose which skein you wanted - there are big differences between them - the Alizarine below is very pink but other skeins had much more blue or purple, the person these socks are destined for is definitely more of a pink person.

For quite some time I have been wanting to make a Perugino throw but the colours of the kits were not quite right - I wanted to make my own. I couldn’t find exactly what I liked in the colours that Colinette offer but then I discovered the sale room – stuffed full of colour ways that hadn’t come out exactly as they should have, end of lines and experiments with new colour combinations, all for £4 a skein! I spent ages pulling together the yarns I wanted, looking at colour and texture; I wanted golds, creams and browns to compliment the room the throw is for.

In the end I settled for these in the full knowledge that these skeins are one of a kind and nobody else will have a throw like mine and all for £24 instead of the £45 for the kit - I love a good bargain. I have named the colours, three skeins of Mohair - chocolate torte, fox tail and wheat field, two skeins of Giotto - both the same colour; Rapunzel and one skein of Tagliatelli - Samhain.

I have been a little extravagant this week with yarn purchasing, when I arrived home there were two parcels of sock yarn, how did that happen!

Parcel number one from modern knitting, I admit it – I got a little bit merry on passion fruit margaritas and bought sock yarn while pissed. I was a little surprised at my choices when they arrived – mostly very bright but with one quite dull choice – hmmm no more drinking and shopping. Other people get drunk and take unsuitable men to bed, I buy yarn instead!

The colours are all Regia – I love the way they have very distinct stripes, machine dyed yarn should be just that and play up this strength not try and emulate hand dyed yarn.
The colours are as follows (clockwise from top left):
Mini ringel Rio – 5217, Stretch Edmonton – 120, Surprise Chianti – 1265, Crazy Passion – 5402, Cotton Colour Java Exotic – 4183.

This slightly sadder specimen is Cotton Colour Java Winner – 4184, I hope to be surprised and pleased when I get round to knitting it!

Parcel number two from Blue Moon – Socks that rock, and are impossible to photograph! I spent ages tweaking the colours on the pictures but this is as close as I could get. The Blue Moon website pictures are better but still don’t do the colours justice – Back stabber is deeply saturated and gorgeous, Kawkaw is subtle and sophisticated.

I actually have been knitting as well. A friend is about to have a baby and so I made a baby bolero from Just One Skein, I already know this is for a boy so I used the Blue Skies Alpaca dyed cotton in Periwinkle and left out the eyelet motif on the back. This is a really fun knit, the first one of these I made was a pale biscuit colour for my godson and took a couple of days, this is the fourth one and they now take only an afternoon.

Also bright socks in Regia Canadian Manitoba – 4737, have been finished; these are glorious purple, pink and yellow with a single stripe of a grey/sage green colour that is muted enough to make the other colours pop. I bought this at Web of Wool (great customer service).

The pattern was made up as I went along, I had been reading about the German technique of using some ribbing around the instep and on a whim decided to add this, it is great if you have high arches for getting a good fit. These socks are for me (finally!) but my mum is modeling them for the picture as she has better ankles – getting her to pose was a bit difficult as she kept laughing and falling over.

Clothkits

2008-07-25T11:08:00.000+01:00

I love reading other peoples blogs and one of my favourites is Ysolda, I love her designs as well as all of the interesting things she blogs about; delicious food and beautiful landscapes. I have been making the Liesl cardigan in Blue Skies Alpaca worsted, bought in the Loop sale - pale blue and beautifully soft, I will take some pictures soon but only after I have finished it - nearly done but I am still in search of the perfect buttons.

Yesterday her blog post was about the arrival of a Clothkits parcel. I remember Clothkits when I was very young and my mother used to make them - 70's England didn't really believe in natural fibers so Mum used to make my clothes or buy them in Denmark when we went home. Mum and I were discussing the relaunch last night over dinner and saying how much we used to love their needle cord and the quality of the material in general, so this morning I had to have a look at the website.

Be warned - the site does not work well on Internet Explorer 6, Firefox seems to be fine though. At the moment the collection is small but what they have is absolutely perfect - I want every single thing in the womens wear collection and the children's gear is seriously cute. Even though it blows my craft budget for the month I had to buy a kit.

I had such difficulty choosing which one but I eventually settled on the Rob Ryan skirt in cerise needle cord with purple print - I am sure I will be buying other items in due course! You can just see the colour at the back of this photo.

I really like his designs anyway - check out his website and etsy shop

I could have paid through the site but decided to call them directly as I had some questions. I'm glad I did as I got fantastic service, they were super friendly and chatty and I also got to choose which lining material I wanted - from a choice of gorgeous Liberty prints.

Yes, the kit seems on the expensive side but the design and quality is excellent and you get everything you need to finish the item, including lining, thread and zip. If I considered what it would cost to buy the pattern, material, lining, zip and thread in John Lewis it works out about the same.

Having bought the skirt kit I will have to wait until next month to buy this - I have been lusting over it for ages:

And when I saw this material in the new modern midwest collection, I was sold on making it:

Gorgeous brown with the cherry blossom - it makes me think about Memoirs of a Geisha - much better in book form than on film, if you enjoyed the book you might also enjoy Geisha by Liza Dalby an American anthropologist who became a geisha in the 70's to enable a deeper study of their world - fascinating.

This is my current choice for the accent material on the dress, I am undecided about this, it's pretty, but I am not sure about the combination - what do you think?:

The lovely ladies in Liberty haberdashery told me that Amy will be in the store on the 12th August having a chat with people - I must put it in my diary! This hasn't been announced yet so don't tell anyone I told you!

Oooo just as I was typing this I got an email to say the Knitty surprise is up - I'll be having a look in a little while - tell me what you think too.

Handspun and homemade

2008-07-13T16:15:00.000+01:00

I am completely in love with handspun yarn, the texture is just beautiful. I am longing to spin my own and have bought a drop spindle kit from the flying ewe, I can't wait to have a go! I am really really lusting over a spinning wheel (Ladybug realistically or Matchless if our bonus it huge this year!) but worried over when I'd be able to fit it into my life and house. I am planning to go and have a look at some next week - shhhh don't tell anyone - I am in denial about how dangerous that would be!

I am trying to content myself with buying some lovely handspun on etsy. I had to go to the post office to pay the customs charge on this beauty yesterday (£13.80 - most of which is the post office handling fee for me to drive 20 mile round trip to the sorting office, hand them cash and pick up my parcel!) It was worth it though!

634 yards of laceweight Merino Tencel from Squoosh, I have no idea what I am going to make with it yet - investigation on Ravelry will commence!

The colours are really vibrant and bright - and elusive on camera! I tried every setting and light and these were the best I could get. There is pink, orange and mauve in the yarn and the colour is called hotty - that made me smile.

If you love handspun too I also received two lovely skeins from Stony Creek, I can't show them as they are destined to be made into a gift.

My Swallowtail was finished ages ago but I am only blocking it today, I am home alone for the weekend so I dared to pin it out on the floor.

It is so light weight and ethereal - when wet it was a tiny blob hardly bigger than a tennis ball! Made from Posh yarn Cecilia, it took forever to wind the yarn into a cake (all 1300 yards) and this shawlette made hardly any dent in it - I shall weigh it to find out how much was used when the blocking is done. The yarn is 50% silk 50% cashmere mix and warm despite it's lightness.

It is almost dry with the warm weather today - I really wish the weather here was more reliable! I should go and pick raspberries and strawberries RIGHT NOW as I won't get soaked - in 10 minutes that may have changed!

I have some friends coming for dinner tomorrow and since I will be working tomorrow, I did a bit of prep work today - I don't think I will ever stop being a chef at heart.

This brown sludge looks deeply unappetising but is in fact an unbaked pain d'epice, if you have tried the supermarket version in France you will be think 'meh - why make that, it's dry, fairly tasteless and a bit dull!' but homemade it is really lovely, soft and delicate with a deep fragrance from the spice mix and the local honey. It is baking now and filling the whole house with Christmas scent. I have been making this since I lived in France but have made one change to my version since reading the chocolate and zucchini book - adding crystallised ginger and crystallised orange peel - yum!

You may be wondering why I am making a Yule scented cake in midsummer, well my plan for dessert tomorrow is to grill some peaches with butter, brown sugar and cinnamon and to serve them on toasted pain d'epice to echo the cinnamon and suck up all the peachy buttery juices, I'll also plop some creme fraiche on top for contrast.

Hope it tastes good!

Long summer nights

2008-06-14T22:50:00.000+01:00

I arrived in Helsinki on Sunday night and decided to go out for dinner, the light is amazing with only a couple of hours of semi darkness – the pictures below were taken at about 10 in the evening. I walked down to the harbour and saw the Götheborg reconstruction; the original East Indiaman went down in 1745 and was excavated in 1986 -1992, it was amazing to see. There was a festival going on around the visit and some little old men were on a stage playing a jazz version of ’it’s a long way to Tipperary’ and singing - it was quite surreal.

On Monday I met with Leo after work and we did a little shopping, I'm looking for a dress to wear for a wedding, I wanted to make one but I don't have enough time to finish it before the big day. I found a lovely dress in Marimekko, sadly it was a little to tight around my assets!

We did manage to get to one knitting shop before it closed and there were some really sweet bits and pieces.

I think I will have to knit one of these hats for myself! I love all these stripey things – a new obsession with stripes might be emerging. The yarn all these are knitted from is seriously woolly and I can't wear it next to my skin unless the temperature is in the -30's, very very itchy.

Behind me you can see some manikins wearing very finely knit colour work jackets - absolutely beautiful, I wish I had taken some close ups - next time perhaps.

Once we got thrown out of the craft hall because they were closing, we went to a local coffee shop – hot chocolate and berry tart – yum!

I am going to have a go at re-creating this tart, very short pastry base that is almost biscuit like. A light creamy filling, it was difficult to work out what it was made from - I think I will try marscapone cheese, vanilla and fold in some lightly whipped cream. The berries were mostly Finnish blueberries plus a few red berries of various types, really intense in flavour with minimal sugar. I love that the Scandinavians seem to enjoy less sugar in these types of things, the hot chocolate was unsugared too; slightly bitter and dark, a much more adult taste.

The coffee shop was quite old fashioned feeling, with beautifully displayed pastries and dark wood chairs and tables. The view from the window was cake-like too, Helsinki's Lutheran Cathedral reminds me of a wedding cake, I love the white walls and columns with the understated gold highlights.

Leo and I went to Olof's mothers for dinner - it was a really great evening and the first time I had met her, such a lovely lady and we talked about knitting, sewing and weaving. The flat is beautiful and filled with gorgeous crafted items from all the families travels.

The rest of the week was work with not much time for knitting, although I managed about 6 hours of dedicated knitting on the flights and finished all of the nupp rows on my swallowtail.

I'm really enjoying this lace work and excited to finish and block it. The garden is open to the public this weekend so I have been sat talking to people about the plants and knitting, after all it is world wide knit in public day today.

Lots of people visiting the garden asked me what produce I would be making for the village fete this year, apparently my hand made bread (not from a bread machine) almost caused a stampede last year and I was referred to as the 'jam lady' (I don't think I like that particularly - it makes me feel old). I feel very WI sometimes then I have a naughty thought and decide they wouldn't appreciate that side of me, I'd probably get thrown out.

Was that the entire summer?

2008-05-16T12:27:00.000+01:00

What a lovely week last week - hot and sunny, I hope it isn't like last year and that is all we get! At the weekend I went to a spa with my friend Leo, we had a great time and the weather really was fabulous. I thought I would get lots of knitting done but we were really 'busy' getting treatments, chatting, eating delicious but healthy food and sitting in the outdoor spa pool.

I took along my Swallowtail shawl - it was moving really quickly but I appear to have stalled - I am almost at the nups but the budding lace seems to have refused to grow to the right number of stitches! The colour is an gorgeous one from Posh - I can't remember what it was called but it looks just like the blossom on the apple tree. In fact I tried to take a picture of the WiP in the tree but it was far to high and I did not want to take remove any branches to photograph, but the wisteria that holds up a rickety fence in the garden is in bloom and the colour is beautifully similar to the yarn as well.

I shouldn't take pictures of on going work as I am terrible at finishing things (especially if they are for me), however it did occur to me that if I put pressure on myself by blogging about something it might get done.

I am very guilty of jumping on the bandwagon and knitting the 'latest' thing. Apologies to Grumperina, I love the knitting new scarves book and when I saw this, I wanted to have a go. So here is the start of my linked rib scarf, it's Manos Del Uruguay silk blend 6461 bought from iknit - I went and checked out the new shop, it's lovely and has a bar, obviously I couldn't leave empty handed!

The plant is an Acer Palmatum, I love the colour of it. The whole garden looks lovely at the moment - it is going to be open to the public (!) in three weeks, through a local open garden scheme, it is a shame it is not slightly earlier as it is really a spring garden and looks it's best at the moment. Although it is quite good it isn't this weekend as there is scaffolding up and there appears to be a toilet in the driveway - Plumber Dad installed a new one some time ago and the old one hasn't gone to the tip yet despite all the nagging, maybe I should plant something in it just in case it doesn't get moved!

When Leo was here at the weekend I had to try and secretly measure her for the jumper I am making, I failed and just held it up to her but it does mean it can appear here. I love the pattern - Simply Marilyn from Interweave, but a bulky cable knit is not something all of us can wear! I have made the pattern smaller, advice from Ravelry users has help with this, I think it will stretch a little too. I finished the front in a day and am half way up the sleeves, it is a bit of a warm project to be knitting now so I'd like to finish soon.

I hope blocking evens out the bottom of the cable as it looks wibbly at the moment and not very nice.

I had been keeping these secret as they are a gift but the recipient saw them in the knitting basket and commented on them, asking who they were for - I couldn't manage to fib! It does mean I can blog about them too. Pomatomus in a really lovely colour way but I have been having second sock issues for so long that I can't remember what it is called and have misplaced the label, it might be Koigu though.

This shows the colours better. I love the pattern and it is quite simple to knit. I have seen a second sock on Ravely that is fraternal so maybe that will have to be made instead of a matching one. I grafted the toe oddly so it looks funny to me but I tried to undo it and it was a nightmare - I thought I'd just leave it.

Finished object! The very simple socks for a certain boy, the yarn was Kaffe Fassett in Landscape Caribbean since the this boy likes sailing. They are a bit large for me but I hope they fit him, I really enjoyed knitting them and the colours are gorgeous, I decided that I like knitting man socks so much I signed up for a guy sock club. They are larger, giving more scope for beautiful yarns and I love the unfussy nature of men's socks, the muted colours and small details make it a much more subtle knit. I have so many sock clubs at the moment I don't think I will get to the end of them but I just can't resist.

I had some trouble getting them to match at the heel - I frogged three times and in the end I cut the yarn and rejoined it to match up properly. It was the dark blue thin stripe where you pick up along the heel - it was accidental in the first sock but I thought it looked lovely and wanted the same on the other.

Taking pictures of your own feet is really difficult - especially if you end up with the picture making your calves look like they belong to a hefty rugby player or maybe a hippo or giving yourself cankles as in the picture above - horizontal stripes eek! I was a little un-nerved by the picture below, perspective is to blame I'm sure (or maybe it is the evil fat leg fairy who makes me eat chocolate and wear high calf building heels)

I'm have been looking for something gorgeous to knit with the amazing yarn from Lily, my secret pal. I have not found anything that screams - 'knit me with your precious camelspin!' so I am having a go at designing something myself.

I love designing things but my time is really limited so spending ages knitting and finding I am unhappy with the look and feel is really difficult. The pleasure in seeing something beautiful does outweigh this eventually though! I have been reading (actually just looking at the pictures as I don't read Japanese) the new Japanese stitch patterns books I bought from yesasia and want to start swatching soon. I also bought the same colour yarn in seasilk (periwinkle) as I would like to see if I can use both to give areas of different texture - not knitted together but more like intarsia - hmmm wonder what will happen!

finished object-tastic

2008-04-09T11:44:00.000+01:00

Wow finished objects - actually they are not recently finished but I have only just had the chance to blog about them.

Firstly some thrummed mitts (Interweave winter) for my friend Leo - she and her gorgeous family are moving to Finland, so warm mitts were called for. I shall be very sad to see them all go but I am excited they will be somewhere that I visit so often! Thank you to Leo as well for saying such nice things about my blog - I suspect it not many people read it but I love writing it all the same (hello to others reading this - Trine and Lily) I may get around to doing some visitor stats but I'd much rather use the time to write another post.

These are made with Artesano alpaca aran - really delicious yarn - I can't remember the name of the colour way but I did buy it at Knit 1, great service from them too - thank you. The thrum roving came from knitshop. I was not to sure about the colour on it's own but once it was knitted into the alpaca I was much happier. Modifications to the pattern - longer cuffs to keep out the snow! I used two hanks of yarn but I had lots left over, if you made the cuffs shorter and perhaps used a co-ordinating stripe on a couple of cuff rows you would be able to get the pair from one hank. These are super warm and this is the seond pair I have made - why have I not made some for myself!

Second item is a scarf for my friend Bev - she's modeling it below. It's done in a free pattern from Fezza using some of their yarns. I made some changes so that the same yarn ( a cute fluffy one) appears at either end and the srtipes are matching on either side - slightly fussy and others may not notice - but I know. I am not always a fan of man-made fibres and fun fibre but I do love how this kind of scarf brings a little interest to an outfit and is fun to twiddle when bored! Bev said that the children in her class are facinated by it - nice to be appreciated :)

I just had to include this pic of the ladies modeling their knitwear - I think a little too much wine may have been consummed at this point (although our behaviour is pretty daft without wine! Bev is the funniest person I know - nothing is sacred and she cracks me up). Leo's family get lots of hand knits (her son is my godson) mainly because they appreciate the work but also because they make them look good :)

I finished my Ene scarf from scarf style - I did have enough yarn so panic over - thank you to lovely Ravelry people for their offers of matching the yarn (gorgeous Dee) and Tinks for her offer of some of her Christmas pressie brother yarn to mine should I not have enough - you are such kind people - thank you :)

This picture of the tip is closest to the colour - I took advantage of the snow and bright sunshine at the weekend to take pictures. The colour way is called pansies and is purple with hints of blues, the depth is amazing - I don't know how Tony who dyes the yarn makes such gorgeous deep colours

My arty hedge background is not the best picture - why am I such a pants photographer!? I know that pictures make a blog so I really should practise more.

I also tried the willow hurdel in the garden as backdrop, that was a lot better I think.I am also kniting a pair of socks for a boy, yes I know this is such a bad idea but it is also a good way to deal with becoming too into him too quickly, deflection onto the socks! Two of his sisters knit so he may have an idea of what it means (!). He dealt with the knitting habbit pretty well when it was revealed to him, although I suspect he may not realise the extent of it! The socks are plain sock receipe in the new Kaffe Fassett yarn - the most stunning picture here. Maybe I'll keep them!

Visiting the family

2008-03-21T12:51:00.000Z

Last weekend I went to my cousins 30th birthday party in Copenhagen and stayed with my Danish Grandma (Mormor) for a long weekend.

Lots of family stuff went on as well as lots of knitting. My Mormor is the most amaizing knitter, she can knit thoose intricate Scandinavian jumpers with two colours and steaks with NO pattern - just from her head!

She's 85 in May but still very active - I met her at the shopping centre, I walked and she cycled:

Her knitting group make blankets and other things for the childrens villages, last year the group made 135 blankets and many other things. They also sponser a child, their first sponsered child has grown up and is over 18 now, she passed all her school exams and still writes to the ladies.

It makes me feel quite emmotional that these ladies who are quite elderly, spend so much time and energy making things for unknown children in villages far away. I also feel guilty that I spend so much on yarn and really I don't need it - if you feel the same, please donate some of your yarn money to a charity or give some of your knitting time to making something for one of the organisations.

Enough with the charity thing! bring on the knitting! having said that here is a combined knitting and charity thing. Mormor is putting together a blanket made from squares knit by a very old lady who can hardly see - you can see below she's crocheting round the edge with a picot stitch. Each square is garter stitch from one corner of 3 stitches increasing the second stich at the beginning of every row (knit into front and back) until you reach the desired width and then decreasing again to 3 stitches, bind off. It's great for using up bits of yarn - you can make the squares strippy if you don't have enough for a whole square.

I also gave Mormor some Debbie Bliss Rialto that I got on ebay really cheaply, she was delighted because on her pension buying yarn is not that frequent an occurance. She has found an stitch pattern and is using it to make a cardigan. This sleeve in the picture is a couple of hours knitting time (wish I was that quick!) - I love the pattern and it is reversible, I'll try and get some instruction on it and write it up here. Reminds me of the ribs on some plants like a cactus. I also bought some self stripping sock yarn for Mormor to make socks - we all own several old pairs of Mormor knit socks but she got out of the habbit of making them some time ago. However the self stripping stuff that she had never seen before made her laugh a lot and she has got back into making socks - the brighter and more crazy the pattern the better!

I went to Strøget in central Copenhagen, there are a couple of good knitting shops on Fiolstræde which I went to look at - I did buy some yarn but more on that at a later date! I walked down to the main shopping street and as I came round the corner I saw this - apparently they do it every Saturday!

The last thing I wanted to share was this picture - all this yarn (admitedly mostly cotton and wool/acrylic mix) is in the SUPERMARKET!!!!! yes that is correct they sell yarn in the supermarket - wow - If only the rest of the world was so forward!

Wow! It's better than Christmas and birthday rolled into one!

2008-03-21T11:35:00.000Z

I arrived home on Wednesday from an evil week at the office, to find I had missed a delivery! I worked from home on Thursday and my very kind mother went to the post office in town to pick up my parcel - I wanted to unwrap it immediatley of course, but had the sensible thought that I should take some pictures first!

I'd like to say that - Lily you are amazing - the best swap partner I could ask for - I was blown away when I opened my parcel. Everything was beautifully wrapped in pretty tissue paper (pink and purple) and had the cutest notelets attached to each item explaining her thinking for buying me each thing. What a lovely idea i wish I had thought of it - it made me feel really special.

Here is the box - oooooo the anticipation! I made myself open each thing really carefully and slowly, savouring every moment!

A picture of the whole stash together - the light didn't do the beauty of everything justice so I decided to take pictures again today:

YARRRRRNNNNNN!!!!! in the picture below too.

The two skeins at the back are Posh - you were right Lily - I love the colours! The pinkish one has a small skein of plain yarn for heel and toe - I love this idea and didn't get any when Dee and Tony did them so I am really pleased.

The three (yes three! wow!) lilac skeins on the right are this amaizing yarn made from milk, I had heard about this but never been able to find it to try it! It's called creamy (Ravelry link) and the colour makes me think of a blueberry milkshake.

On the left the most glorious Handmaiden yarn called Camelspin (Ravelry link) in Periwinkle colour way - it has to be one of the softest yarns ever - I can't stop stroking it! Made with Camel - which you would imagine to be a bit rough and smelly - it is quite the oposite. I am going to choose the project for this yarn very very carefully as it is just fabulous.

Check out the stitch markers - tiny little sheep! one black sheep too. They have the cutest sheepy expressions - where did Lily find them!

This is the book that I really wanted - so kitch, I love it - I have to make tea cosies right now, but casting on and typing is not so easy!

Lots of really pretty bits and pieces too - this parcel had so much in it! A lovely notebook, a sweater keyring, a little purse and a sweet pen and pencil. You can see one of the notelets in this picture - such cute little yarn monkies and knitting sheep - Lily must have spent ages finding all these beautiful things.

Mmmmmm chocolate and coffee - organic and fairtrade too. My best friend is coming later so we will be having some lovely real coffee and choclolate.

The beautiful card is from Blue Moon Fibre Arts.

I also received a kit to make a bracelet from Earthfaire in blue with silver thread - I made one before for someone else, they are really lovely and look spectacular. I have always wanted to make one for myself - now I can, YAY! Lily had even added needles to the kit as they don't come with the needles, really thoughtful of her.

There were also some Lush products - they are absolutley the ones I would choose for myself and I had a bath with some last night - Amandopondo, the smell of roses really helped me get over my terrible week at work! I also got some Greenday smells really spring like of fresh grass and a Fever massage bar - now to find a handsome man to rub it on me, until then I will do it myself and smell gorgeous!

A big hug and thank you to Lily - the parcel is amaizing and made my week (and my month as well!). I've really enjoyed the swap even though I have been travelling so much I have not been able to email Lily as much as I wanted to and take part in the things happening on the swap blog - I'll deffinatley take part again, it has been really great to see and meet some younger knitters.

Better than expected

2008-02-17T19:57:00.000Z

Well the weeks adventures were better than expected - the lodge we stayed at for our team bonding was stunning, my room had a four-poster bed. The resident ghost kept some of the others awake but I seem to have slept through that one!

This picture is the view from my bedroom quite early in the morning - stunning.

I meet some knitters whilst I was there, they very kindly agreed to take me to some local knitting shops next time I am in the Finnish office.

We did some Nordic walking - I couldn't really see that it was that different to normal walking, apart from the poles that kept my upright on the ice!

As you can see there was very little snow, the ski resorts in the rest of Europe are doing okay but the Nordics are missing out this year.

A very beautiful dawn, it was about -7 degrees but very very windy!

I felt the urge to bake this weekend - cream cheese swirl brownies, I am taking them to work so I don't eat them all myself!

375g Unsalted butter

375g Good dark chocolate

550g Caster sugar

7 eggs

1 tbsp Vanilla extract

1tsp Salt

200g Cream cheese - Philly!

225g Plain flour + 2 tbsp

Tin that measures 33 x 23 x 5.5 cm

Preheat the oven to 180C or gas 4 - we have an Aga so it's pretty much guesswork for me!

Line the tin - brownies stick very firmly - I use tin foil

Melt the butter and sugar together in the microwave - if it gets to hot you should wait for it to cool down or you get scrambled choco eggs - yuck.

Mix 6 eggs and 500g sugar with the vanilla - stir to combine

Tip the egg/sugar/vanilla mix into the chocolate butter, stir carefully as the mix thickens slightly.

Add the flour (except the 2 tbsp) and salt. Mix gently to remove lumps, try not to incorporate too much air as you really want stodgy brownies (I think that is the point of them really!)

Pour the mixture into the tin. Now make the cream cheese bit - mix the cream cheese, egg and remaining flour together, if you squidge the cheese about first it is easier to get the lumps out. Plop blobs of cheese over the top of the brownie and swirl together prettily.

Pop them in the oven for around 40 minutes in my Aga but normal ovens can take as little as 25 - keep checking, you want the brownie squidgy but not liquid. They keep cooking after you take them out as well. Let them cool before trying to cut them, then apply to face.

Ahhh at last some knitting!

I confess I bought these in Helsinki - I was cold and they are beautiful. The lady in the shop was really lovely and helpful. They sold yarn too - of course I bought some, who am I kidding!

These are a Finnish pattern but made in Estonia because the labour is cheaper - 32 Euros for these gloves! I was surprised they are made from alpaca but it is a lot softer than the traditional rough wool, that was available as well and I don't think you notice itchiness when it is very cold but I wanted these really bright ones.

Some of my own knitting now - This is the Ene that I have been making - I have got no further and still have not decided what to do about the possibility of running out of yarn!

These pictures really aren't doing the colour justice, I find it hard to capture dark yarn on a light background but can't seem to find a better way to show the stitches.

Oh No!

2008-02-12T16:27:00.000Z

I'm in Helsinki again - I have a team building event for three days, I don't know about you but just the words team building makes me feel tired! We are going snowshoeing which I am looking forward to but the other bits - mehhh! I love my job - don't get me wrong but the thought of all the other socialising I will need to do - not being completely myself because it's work, I'd much rather be knitting!

I can hear people asking - can't you just go and hide in your hotel room in the evening and knit. The answer would be quite possible yes except on HUGE problem! I didn't pack ANY knitting -argghhhh not a single thing - I am really quite upset about it and I have no time to go to a yarn shop for an emergency stash run (they shut at 5 and I am still at work, we are leaving at an unhealthy 7 am). I am astonished that I could be so unorganised - admittedly I was packing on Monday before rushing to the airport but how did I forget something that important!

I have been working on my Ene scarf (scarf style) but I know for sure my gauge is off and now I am worried about running out of yarn. Yes I did a swatch - it was stockinet and perfect, there is something about this pattern that has made the gauge giant. I am torn, do I rip out the hours of work I have done and redo with smaller needles or do knit really quickly in the hope that there is enough yarn (why do I think that might work!). The yarn is lovely - the colour is pansies from Posh yarn, one off dye so no chance of getting any more. Maybe I could bind off early - that way instead of being triangular the scarf will have a 'neck' triangle missing, the pattern is knit from the outside edges in towards the middle of the hypotenuse. Why am I even thinking about this - it is just making me more annoyed that I am not even in the same country as the project!

Helsinki in winter

2008-02-07T13:27:00.000Z

I have been working in Helsinki this week, it isn't as cold as it normally is at this time of year, it should be -20, with lots of snow and the harbour would normally be frozen over.

I went out for a drink with people from work on Wednesday evening, to a place called the Torni hotel - it's a big tower in the centre of Helsinki with a bar at the top we sat out on the terrace, which despite the unseasonably 'warm' weather was still pretty cold! The view was amazing and the bar is tiny - very steep spiral stairs to reach it. It was advisable to only have one of the fab cocktails (or make a large soft landing walk down the stairs in front of you!)

I took some pictures from the office this morning in Espoo - as you can see it is wet and gray with very small bits of snow.

The front of the office has an interesting 'sail' sculpture. You can hardly see it - I am surprised the pictures came out, they almost look grayscale!

This is the front of the office overlooking the fjord. It should be lovely in the summer.

I went to a knitting shop in the centre of the city but by the time I got there it was closed - I'm going to try again next week. I found an excellent site that can tell you where the LYS are in any city - just don't believe the opening times!

I heard from my secret pal too - very exciting - hello to my lurking new friend!

I went to the London office today - what a difference in the sunlight! We have a really interesting view over the city.

I have been doing some knitting whilst I was away - but more of that latter - when I can take pictures with natural light.

Nasty Noro (not the yarn!)

2008-01-22T16:05:00.000Z

I had a really good weekend - it was my 30th birthday on Sunday and I went out for the whole weekend - had so much fun.

Monday morning I was supposed to fly to Helsinki for work - I felt a bit funny when I woke up and it all went down hill from there, I thought it might have been the weekends excitment but when the world turned multicoloured in the worst possible way, I did start to think something else was wrong. I had to cancel my trip, aircraft and unhappy insides are not a combination I want to try!

Since the Noro virus is going around I think I must have picked it up (maybe from Mum - she sees lots of patients and two of her colleagues are ill already). Noro is not my fav word right now - which seems a shame as I really like the yarn!

Being at home is boring but necessary - I am doing some work, some knitting and internet stuff. I managed to get drawn in to the Get knitted sale and bought a few bits and pieces - Lornas laces fisherman, I've never tried this yarn but will let you know what I think. I also got some yarn for a pair of arrrgyle socks (Regia SIlk)- so many men in my life would like a pair! I am just seeing how they go the first time.

Browsing ravelry (as you do when everything else makes your tummy hurt!) I saw the woodland shawl pattern from Nikol Lohr, it is perfect for a friend - I really want to make her something and this just has her name ALL over it - now I just have to choose a great yarn - she has very different colour taste to me so it might be quite hard (brown, greens, creams and rusts). I think I will wait for a Posh sale and get something from there - poor Dee and Tony at Posh, random crap luck they are having at the moment - big hugs to you both.

I am really looking forward to the swap starting - I have finally managed to do my questionaire, so here goes:

Part One: Crafting

Do you knit, crochet, or both?
Both, I love variety.

What do you like to make? Do you have a favourite project?
I enjoy making so many things – I go through phases of things – at the moment it is socks, lace and small items

Do you have a favourite type of fiber or brand of yarn?
I love anything slightly out of the ordinary, small artisan producers and anything soft (I’m all about the softness of the yarn – comes from having to wear horrible itchy grey woolly socks at school, I hated them so much!).

Do you have a least favourite type of yarn?
Rough wool or anything that isn't at least partly natural fibres

Do you do any other crafts?
I like to sew (clothes, furnishings, patchwork, quilts), make jewllery and cook, my friends think I am a 1950’s housewife. Anything that is creative gets me really excited – I love trying anything new and experimenting.

What knitting do you bring ‘on the go’?
Small things! - socks, hats, nothing requiring more than two balls or long needles.

What do you carry your ‘on the go’ knitting in? Do you want something new?
I have a fabulous bag already - one from Heather for larger projects and one from Socktopus for small things

Are there any knitting gifts (book, toy, yarn, item, tool) that you have been lusting over?
There is a really cool book about knitting teacosies that a lady at my knitting club had. Any yarn with interesting or unusual ‘ingredients’ bamboo, soya, maize, stainless steel, camel all that kind of thing. Cute stitchmarkers are brilliant as well - you can never have too many.

Part Two: Your Favourites

What is your favourite colour? What is your least favourite colour?
Favourites – cool blues, greys, purples and pink. Not feeling so much affinity with muddy or acid toned greens, yellows and oranges.

What scents/smells do you like? What don’t you like?
Green fresh scents, roses, citrus fruit, patchouli, fig, rosemary. I don’t like anything sweet smelling or fruits like strawberry and raspberry, mothballs make me feel sick too – or maybe it is the thought of moths in my stash!

How do you like to pamper yourself?
Long baths with moisturising products, massages are also good. Natural and organic products are particularly yummy

What goodies to you like to treat your tummy with?
Cheese, chocolate (lots of cocoa content), good bread and coffee

Do you prefer tea or coffee while you knit? Any particular kind? Favourite mug/cup?
Coffee or herbal teas – has to be real coffee – black no sugar.

Do you listen to/watch anything while you knit? (TVshow-Along, movies, music, podcasts)
Radio 4 – generally I love everything they do, I also like crime/spy dramas on TV – British or American (Spooks, Bones, CSI, prime suspect that kind of thing) period dramas too.

Part Three: Living & Past-times

Where do you live in the UK?
Near London

Have you always lived here, or did you grow up somewhere else?
I grew up between the UK and Denmark - half of my family are Danish (hence the continental knitting style). When I finished uni I lived in France for five years - I love France and the French and really miss being there.

If you could visit anywhere in the world, where would you go?
Japan and Morocco

If you couldn’t go to a knitting group, what other kind of gathering would you go to?
I love my yoga class' (ansura and vinyasa) – but I don’t get to go so often now I work in London, I also enjoy teaching snowboarding – and love either giving or going to a class. I also love sailing, kayaking, skiing and rockclimbing

What’s your style?
Glamourous and quirky (burlesque and 1950’s glamour) at work and when going out but also sporty and natural when I am doing something active!

Final Part:
Any allergies/preferences (fiber-wise or treat-wise)?
Allergic to plasters and hate parsley – but I don’t think that’s what you meant :) nothing I haven’t mentioned already

Anything we missed that you’d like your partner to know?
That I’m really excited about this – it's my first swap!

Coffee at Borders

2008-01-13T15:02:00.000Z

Today I went for my usual Sunday coffee with a friend at Borders - they have their usual Starbucks, which I am not keen on but Milton Keynes only has chain shops. Also this is the only place where you are more or less sure to get a free parking space.

Said friend is male and so I decided to ask him what he thought of the newest Debbie Stoller book He isn't a knitter but I wanted to know if the patterns were acceptable to guys- I have heard very mixed reports from people so had not yet purchased it. He actually liked quite a few things which encouraged me to buy it - he then requested a hoodie but was firmly told "no - not unless we were married and that isn't going to happen!". I am looking forward to reading it tonight in bed.

I normally knit when I have coffee but for some reason didn't bring anything with me - very weird doing nothing with my hands!

I finished my socks from socktopus sock club over Christmas - Anna Karenina, I adore the purple colour in them but was not so sure about the greeny yellow - now they are finished I really like the combination (but I am still really in love with the purple!)

They do make my ankles merge into my calves and look chunky (cankles I believe they would be called!) this and the cashmere content will make them house socks. I finished this one watching the history boys - such a brilliant film, I laughed so much. The other one is being washed (don't ask - the perils of knitting whilst commuting!).

I also made some jewelry - all the pictures I took of this were terrible - maybe a different colour background would have helped? The other thing I made is a secret surprise for someone, so I won't show it on here.

What you can't see is the wire is red and there are five wires they go through five smaller hematite beads and then all the wires go through one larger silver bead. I think they look like clusters of grapes but the rude part of my brain mentioned hemeroids! Anyway - I like it and shall ignore my inner bitch.

bad blogger!

2008-01-12T15:57:00.001Z

I’m so ashamed about my lack of blogging – my excuses are pretty poor too – new job with long hours and a commute (good for knitting time!) and Christmas pressies which required me to knit not write about it. However I am resolved to doing a bit more blogging not least because I joined

swap and my upstream may want to read my blog. I am amazed that anyone reads it actually, sometimes I think it is just me talking to myself for extended periods but then I think how many blogs I read and hope that there might be one person reading!

I knit many things for the holidays and then very very stupidly forgot to take any pictures before I gave them away as gifts for Christmas.

Tuscany (from no sheep for you) was finished – looked lovely and grandma was really pleased.

Thrummed mitts (Interweave – can't remember which edition) – really lovely aran weight alpaca in walnut colour with pink and purple thrums – I WANT a pair for me! I already have requests for two more sets so I’ll try to take pics of them.

Fingerless mitts (original pattern in Yarnforward but I changed a few things) these were for my friend Leo – she’s a very talented interior designer so I was worried about the colour being perfect – finally went for a Rowan tapestry yarn in blues/seagreens.

Koolhaas hat (Jared Flood in Interweave gifts 07- I love this guys knitting, knitting men - there is something uber cool about that) in a really lush green (reminded me of Christmas trees) Rowan 100% merino aran weight for a Finnish friend Olof (this was a birthday gift really but his birthday is just before Christmas)

My new job have given me a great phone with a 5 mega pixel camera so it should be easy to take pics of projects – I really don’t like the digital camera, arsing about with linking it up to the PC just seems so much work.

Note to self – having spent 2 hours trying to link the laptop and phone together using Bluetooth or infrared – never trust the technology to be simple EVER.

I do now have a couple of pics

Mmmmmm yarn!

The yarn in the left basket at the front is some more aran weight alpaca for some more thrummed mitts - it is soo soft and yummy - the light blue tops for the thrums is behind, the yarn was from the knit1 sale - I had not bought much there previously but am really pleased by the speedy service and the great sale. The cake of laceweight blue is from my LYS - Sue helped me spend some of my first paycheck from my new job, this is just some of my bounty - cherry tree hill in moody blues, not sure what to make with it yet!

The right hand basket is mostly posh stash with a bit of the cashmere from Loop at the front. This bit of my stash looks quite organised - my grandma and I spent a while sorting it all out over Christmas (the sheep skin rug in the front was a Christmas pressie from her too) she laughed so much at all my yarn and we had a fun afternoon stroking and sniffing it all - she went home with a large bag full too.

On the right you can see a little of my project bag from Heather (I love this bag it is so unique and beautiful) and it's current contents. Better picture of the contents - the back to school u neck vest from Fitted Knits this is a fantastic book with some great patterns, however I am grumpy about this project. I was making it for a friend who is a teacher (back to school and all that) I had nearly finished it but realised that halfway through the neck/shoulder shaping I had a senior moment and changed the stitch pattern - what was I thinking! or perhaps the problem was I wasn't thinking. I had already bound off before I noticed and now I hate the thought of ripping it out - I think I would mind much less if I didn't have to un-bindoff. I am so cross with myself that I can hardly stand to look at it - hence the picture was taken to try and force me to do something about it. The yarn is a very pleasing Cascade 220 'quatro' - it doesn't show to well here but it was a joy to knit with and I love the four ply in the four different colours it makes the over-all shade really interesting, plus it was not expensive (£4.99 for 100g) - maybe I'll make one for me - it is small enough for train knitting - it would be good if the full range of colours was available here - there are some great ones, I really like 9437 or 5014 - unsurprisingly the blue and the pink - maybe I should be bolder in my colour choices? I had my colours done last year and now I feel guilty if I choose something that is not supposed to suit me according to the colour lady - feels a bit facist though "you must never wear black again"

Must go to bed now (new wifi allows me to work in bed - I'll never get away from the computer now - it's almost hardwired into my brain!)

online community

2007-11-05T15:25:00.000Z

I love the knitting community - the online shops, blogs and sites are fun to use and read. I did think of myself as fairly web savvy (after all I work for a new media agency currently) but I hadn't thought about pod casts! Sadly I am yet to own a generic MP3 player but my latest discovery is hinting I may want to buy this nifty kit.

Thank you to Ellen for pointing me in the direction of Lime and Violet and to Trine for cast on I have been absorbed by them today listening through my laptop. I am also a radio 4 addict and the thought of podcasts when I am commuting makes me feel happier about getting up so early!

I have made it to the 4th repeat on my Tuscany and am thinking that with the seasilk I bought but didn't use I might make an Icarus shawl from Interweave - I lusted after the forest path shawl but I am not sure it wouldn't drive me insane, (entralac lace anyone!) plus I would have to buy different yarn as my seasilk is periwinkle blue - good for feathers I think, but not really for forests - I'm not sure if it is just me being fussy but the yarn colour has to 'go' with the project.

I spent lots of time at the weekend knitting on a Christmas gift only to find that somewhere in my brain I had got the stitch pattern confused (waffle stitch is not hard!!! how could I possibly have ballsed that up!) and half the front of the item looks very odd! I didn't have the mental energy to frog it (I had bound off the front already- why does that make it mentally so much harder) so it is sat in its basket looking accusingly at me :( maybe tonight I will savage it.

I am also still waiting for the Jamiesons that I ordered at Ally Pally - I emailed them two weeks ago and they said it had been dispatched but as yet nothing has arrived and I wait longingly for the postlady. This is for a designed by me one of a kind for a special man and I want to start knitting - COME ON POST! Actually I get so much delivered in the post that Lizzie the postlady thinks I am crazy - maybe some knitted flip top mittens will persuade her that I'm not (actually I may use the left over Jamiesons from the other item - it isn't a large but yet required 16 colours of spindrift! ). It's one of those small village things - Liz remembers my mother when she first came to England as an Au pair - she worked in the garden of the house where my mother was looking after the children - by all accounts the family were not the nicest people you would want to work for. I really can't imagine my mother taking any rubbish from people - she is quite fearsome now, but yet I suppose she was only 17 - I expect that if it had been me I would have gone home, annoying when your mother has more gumption and brains than you do, yet it makes me extraordinarily proud of her

I am drifting off knitting topic but in my head it is all related!

packages in the post

2007-11-01T18:43:00.000Z

I frequently forget that I have ordered something from the net and get a nice surprise when it arrives - particularly things from America or backorders of books. Today a nice Amazon parcel arrived and I was very happy to see a Best of Interweave, I am resisting the urge to look at it at my desk and will savor it when I get home. I love books - our house is crammed with them, I get really excited about book shops and the like - even the smell ! I saw this one on someone else blog - soooo pretty, I am having book lust!

I am feeling the need to go to the pub this evening - I love it now there is no smoking, I can knit in the pub without my knitting smelling vile. The locals are getting quite used to it and now I am getting requests - however I don't know about anyone else but I won't knit for people who don't know how much effort is required or that I don't completely love. Unfortunately I like lots of people enough to knit for them - and have a long list of things I should make.

I wish I could spend all day knitting but I don't think I would like it to be my job - my experience with cooking has put me off doing something you love as a hobby as a job - I cheffed for a long time in France but found I still loved cooking/food but no longer wanted to cook for pleasure. Maybe I love knitting enough to do it as a job and for fun but it don't want to risk it!

Dee at Posh is very naughty - she talked about to etsy today and it reminded me how much I love it. I got a little bit geeky about the ways of searching for things - it's really fun to use and the interface much more interesting than ordinary online shopping experiences - believe me I have worked on a few online shops and maybe it was the products, but they were not a 'fun' experience. If I am parting with money and I can't touch the product, I need it to be enjoyable in other ways. I didn't purchase anything but enjoyed spending lunch time checking out all the lovely things people make and sell - knitwear coasters get much love.

Must get some WiP pictures on here or this will be entirely about yarn I like an have bought and no actually knitting - need a camera! May borrow my father’s - last time I borrowed my mother’s camera I was 15 and going to France for a school art trip - I was bullied, the camera was stolen and my mother was mightily upset. Hopefully that will be avoided this time!

tired and slow

2007-10-31T15:47:00.000Z

What is it with the clocks going back? - I got an extra hour in bed and the effect lasted one day! It is now even harder to get out of bed in the morning.

I've been having a horrible couple of weeks at work - I am leaving my job soon and finding it hard to muster up enthusiasm for projects I will never see the end of and being helpful to certain clients is more draining that usual.

After a grim day yesterday my lovely friend Jake cooked me dinner and bought me a bunch of flowers - such a sweet guy. It was thanks for giving him a snowboard - I didn't need it, I have far too many and he would be able to make much more use of it to learn on. Anyway if anybody is single and looking for love, Jake is your man - he is fun, quite handsome and in search of a proper relationship! I hear you ask what is wrong with him - he's actually a little too attractive and all of us suspicious women think that he naturally is a player and will not touch him with a barge pole.

I digress from knitting - Sarah (my new colleague) and I visited the knitting hut today - she is old friends with Sue who runs the shop. I managed to only buy 1 ball of yarn - I really want to make the koolhaas hat, I'd love the yak yarn that the pattern calls and I don't mind the $30 odd the yarn costs but I strongly object to paying more for the postage than the yarn costs and then import tax when it gets here grrrrr!

I bought some lovely pale blue silk/merino type yarn, not sure I have enough, since I had a dim moment a bought the one ball, only to look at the pattern and realise that it should be 100g ball not the 50g that I had bought - oh well can always buy another one! I really love the pattern and want to see if I can convert it into a sock too.

My Amazon habit is bad - I have a wish list that keeps growing and a budget that doesn't, but I did order a book today - Inspired Fair Isle Knits - I love love love colour work, I used to use my Mormor (Danish grandmothers) method of knitting with two strands, continental in one hand using different finger to lift the yarn in use up, but you end up with really long floats - they get caught up on things. Then I took a really good class with Debbie Abrahams last year and now knit with my usual continental in the left hand and English with my right - wrapping the floats makes for much neater knitting. I might teach my Mormor when she visits for Christmas - her knitting never ceases to amaze me, so fast and she can knit a whole Fair Isle jumper or cardie without a pattern in the round, she 'simply' sews it on the machine and steeks it! She has had a lot of practice I suppose.

Knittytastic weekend

2007-10-29T10:19:00.000Z

Wow - what a great day I had on Saturday. I went to a class at the lovely Loop in Islington with the great Amy Singer of Knitty fame. The class was to help us to work on our lace knitting skills and started the Tuscany shawl from the no sheep for you book. It was also Amy's birthday - so happy birthday Amy and thank you for spending the day teaching!

I had some lush silk yarn that I purchased at Ally Pally - deep royal purple, it was much thicker than everybody else's - they were all using seasilk. I had bought some seasilk in periwinkle but for some reason decided to be different - Amy did liken it to drawing with big crayons, which I thought was rather apt and totally agree with. I really wanted some of the silken that was used in the book, but couldn't get any in time - pretty please someone in the UK, can you stock this! I also asked the wonderful Dee at Posh yarn if she had any of her silk left, but sadly she didn't - so chunky crayons for me. Actually it was great because the shawl grew really quickly and it was really easy to see any cock-ups.

The other people in the class were really fun - it was great to meet so many interesting knitters. Hello to all the lovely people I met! They were all really inspiring in their own way, particularly in giving me a good kick up the arse to get my blog sorted out and to put all my stuff onto Ravely!

I spent Sunday knitting and went to boarders for coffee with friends. I'm making a baby jacket - for my new godson - I can't believe I have been asked to be a godmother - I am really honored and excited. I am now busy sewing it all together, I actually really enjoy the making up process, I know lots of people can't stand it but I love making those neat seams and sewing in the ends (Although I do everything possible to reduce the number of ends!) good finishing can be the difference between homemade and handcrafted.

I'm trying to be good at the moment and not spend too much but I couldn't resist some cashmere yarn at Loop from Knitting Goddess.

Also this from Sunday's yarn at Posh yarn goodies - it's called Victoria and is an aran weight 50% cashmere 50% silk - I am finally going to make a clapotis!

Hmmm

2007-05-23T13:57:00.000+01:00

Oh dear - I do't seem to be getting very far with my blog styling, all I seem to be doing is working and occationally trawling ebay for yarn, about which I dream about making into something beautiful.

Stu who is is a design bod is helping me with the techie kind of stuff has been busy designing ninjas for this blog and for my labels.

This one is a bit scary:

But there is also a blue ninja to - who is slightly less intimidating

Excited!

2007-05-16T16:08:00.000+01:00

Ooooo my first post - how exciting!