Word vomit.

My dear, faithful readers.

For far too long you have been left in the lurch, with no word from me to let you know that I am, in fact, safe and well. I trust that your distress has been minimal, and urge you to cease any rescue missions you may have forged in my lengthy absence. You’ve been warned of the gargantuan nature of this post, so grab a cuppa, a biscuit or two, kick your feet up and come with me on a whistle-stop tour of my past few weeks.

With such time away from my blog, and computers in general, it is tough to know where to start. A quick retrogression tells me that I left you just after the Steeking workshop. So, that was way back in April, and a lot has happened since then!

As mentioned, the mothership and I went to Wonderwool, a large and glorious celebration of all things knitty up in mid Wales. I guess I should begin by catching you up on how that went. In a word, Wonderwool was cold. Not just your average, “I’m going to wear a scarf today” kind of cold, the kind of cold that makes every single bone in your body ache. The kind of cold that makes you believe you will never be warm again. No matter how many scathing coffees I poured down my throat, nothing could quell the growing frost of my innards. Okay, so I’m getting a wee bit poetic, but believe me, imagine the coldest you’ve ever been, and imagine that lasting for 3 days. Our B&B room was not in the house, but actually out in the garden shed. You can imagine how difficult it is to try and stay warm in a garden in mid-Wales. 

Months and months of work all on the back of a lorry!

 Frostbite aside, it was such a great experience – thanks so much to everyone who came and supported us. It truly meant a lot to meet so many lovely people, who not only were interested in what we were doing, but who were also keen to support us. If you’re interested, my mum’s yarn is now selling at Great British Yarns, and I’ve persuaded her onto Twitter. There’s also a Ravelry group if you’re that way inclined. I loved being at the show, and being there with a product I truly believed in. I felt accepted by the knitting community and that was important for me. It was inspiring and exciting, both in the people that were there and the things on show. My personal highlights? Meeting the mighty Sasha Kagan – a knitting mogul whose books have been on my mum’s bookshelves since I was tiny. The Shetland SheepSociety and the British Coloured Sheep Breeder's Association, whose kind words and informative advice made many things a lot easier. It was great to see JohnArbon Textiles in person, too, as well as being next-door neighbours with The Natural Fibre Company, whose new stuff in the shop makes me fall over with desire.

Our stall - 9 1/2 hours of building later...

 

Right, so after Wonderwool I came back to work for a week, warmed up, and then did my driving test. A pretty stressful end to a very stressful few weeks, but thanks to the grace of God, I passed! Not first time, I hasten to add, this was my third attempt, but I only got a few minors so I’m incredibly pleased. My pink license came in the post today, and I’m not ashamed to say that I danced around my kitchen with the smallest of my dogs. She was not amused. I feel like a fully-fledged grown up.

Following the driving test, I then hotfooted it over to the New Forest to have a well-deserved holiday with my girls from university. Since graduation, we’ve been blown our separate ways, so booking time in with each other away from housemates and parents is really important to us all. We stayed in a heavenly little cottage and had a wonderful time, with many wild foals and donkeys populating the sides of the roads. A novelty that never wears off! Of course, we managed to visit every wool shop we came across but I managed to remained disciplined and held my purse strings tight. Now that I’m running a car, disposable income has somewhat vanished!

What they were supposed to look like!

Part of the reason for the holiday was my BFF’s birthday, and I had decided long ago to nab the free Anna Hrachovec pattern from here and make a selection of tiny rabbits for her.  I think she liked them, although I wasn’t too happy with the finished quality. By the end of it I was rushing, and though they all had their own character and charm, I’m a perfectionist and would have liked to spend a bit more time on them. Nevertheless, I churned out 6 in the few moments of spare time I had leading up to the holiday.

I really enjoyed making the rabbits and decided to get the Teeny Tiny Mochimochi book – they are really fun to make and this book is full of great ideas. They make much easier gifts than socks!

So I got back from holiday, and was greeted by this fellow:

Looking deceivingly still and well-behaved.

A new puppy! We got him while I was away so he was already pretty settled by the time I got there, but he’s adorable. He’s a deerhound, so will grow up to be the size of a small horse. At the moment he is fluffy and pick-upable and so we’re trying to make the most of it before he out grows us all. We called him Dobby. I like to think that it’s because of Harry Potter, where in reality I know that it’s because my mum is a spinning nut.

Then I was back to work, where we’re super busy organising our Lace Workshop and all the new stock for the summer and the coming Winter. It’s been one of those months where my feet haven’t really touched the ground! 

I must wrap this up now – I’ve been rambling for almost 1000 words and if you’re still with me you deserve a medal/cup of tea/long sit down in a darkened room.

Not much knitting updates in today’s entry, but I will knuckle down and continue to make cool stuff and learn new skills to fill you in on soon.

St-EEK!

This Saturday, I was lucky enough to be able to go along to the second knitting workshop at GBY (read about the first one here) on Steeking.

I know what you're thinking - if you follow this blog at all you'll know that I am a total beginner and am in no way ready to be steeking. I shared your thoughts, and hoped to go along and merge into the background lest anyone ask me about cabling, thumb cast-ons or other such things I know nothing of. I planned to hide behind my role as photographer, and, as I didn't have time to prepare any sample swatches, I figured that the likelihood of me having to actually get involved was a slim one. Oh, how wrong I was.

The fateful moment!

Before I go any further, I'll explain to any fellow beginners what steeking actually is. It was explained to me several times before I actually got the hang of it, and even then, doing it was something else all together. It is as mad as it sounds so I'll say it slow. Steeking is where you cut. Your. Knitting. As you can imagine, this strikes fear and horror into the hearts and minds of knitters world-over. Well... apart from Norway, where they apparently tend to be snip happy when it comes to jumpers and such like. So, brave Norwegians aside,  the concept of cutting your knitting seems to be entirely superflous and a rather scary procedure. But, there is a reason to do it, and many fairisle patterns use steeking as a way of making armholes and seams where the pattern can continue as normal. I know, I know, I'm not a very good explainer - head here or here for more comprehensive guides. Basically, it's a very handy little technique which can turn the meekest of knitters into a scissor wielding maniac. Don't be put off any horrendous photos - they look like open chest cavities, but believe me, it needn't be that scary!

The workshop was run by the mighty Ann Kingstone, whose glorious website you can visit here. I was pretty anxious about going to what I knew was going to be a full workshop, having inadequently prepared and lacking the knowledge to even feign the confidence I needed!

Copious amounts of tea were needed.

To be honest, having had to be told what steeking actually was, I wasn't at all sure what to expect. I was even afraid to wear any knitwear on the day in case I was forced to cut it apart. Thankfully, once we had all arrived and said our hellos (and had a good look around the shop, it has to be said!) Ann was very clear that she wanted the day to be fun. She gave us an introduction, but it wasn't long before we had to get down to cutting our samples. (Lucky for me, Sharon had knit some spares!)

Ann, and all the lovely ladies who shared the steeking experience with me, were all super encouraging. It was also nice to be there on my own terms - as much as I love doing these things with my mum, it was really interesting to be there by myself. It meant I couldn't rely on the person next to me to help me out when I made a mistake, and forced me to speak up when there was something going on I didn't understand. Thankfully, everyone was so lovely, I found myself being a little too honest about my inability to pick up stitches, but they all encouraged me to keep at it and I had the hang of it pretty quickly, helping me to keep repeating it until I had it dialled.

Weirdly, even though I was by far the least experienced person in the class, I didn't feel left behind at all. I may not have been the quickest, but I achieved the same amount as everyone else and managed to even pick up a few bonus skills! We learnt three different ways of reinforcing knitting, and I'm so completely confident that I feel fully able to attempt a pattern with steeking in it. I don't know when one will come my way, but I know the skills I learnt will help me when one does!

Machine enforced knitting - weird, huh?

The experience overall was so edifying. Just when I reach the end of my patience with a project, or get bored with knitting swatches, an experience like this will come along and completely restore my spirits. I cannot recommend the workshop experience enough! The combination of great teaching and great company really added to my enthusiasm and I'm still buzzing! I'm trying to refrain cutting up everyone's projects - apparently "just because I can" isn't a valid reason for doing it!

Fairisle steek sample.

Anyway, I know I've rambled long enough... I'm off to Wonderwool this weekend and if anyone else is going please do pop by and say hello - I'm there with my mum [Jillybean Yarns] and would love to meet you!

Rabbiting on...

Okay, so the reason I’ve been so absent the past week or so is because of this:

This little bundle of delights is my gorgeous baby niece, who was born this week.

I’ve been honoured in that she’s been given my name as her middle one [long, touching story], and I maintain that the only reason she came out when she did was that I finally managed to finish knitting the slippers I had been working on for 3 weeks previous to her arrival! I knew that I wanted to get them done before she arrived in the world, but as more and more got in the way of my daily life, I thought it was an impossible task. Thankfully for me, not so much for my sister, baby was not keen on coming on time, so I got an extra 8 days to make all the finishing touches.

The pattern was from this Debbie Bliss book, which is going quite cheap these days and is chocka with loads of really nice, really makeable things for kids. Keen followers of the Facebook feed will know that a lovely customer inspired these! I used some trusty sale yarn from GBY, and hey presto. The pattern was really easy, and it’s amazing how it goes from this:

To these:

The best thing is that when they’re done, they look really impressive. I feel like I’m slightly cheating because they really were easy to make. Best of all, I was able to follow the pattern all by myself, with no help from any of the various knitting gurus I have surrounded myself with in the past. It was such a sense of achievement to finish and to hand them over. Though it did take me a long time to actually sit down and knit, they didn't take that long to actually make, which is always good.

I doubled up my gift by purchasing some gorgeous knitted wares from Potting Shed Crafts, and, sticking to the theme I chose a gorgeous bunny ears hat.

Babies really are the best! I can't wait to make lots of new things for my namesake.

I Knit, Therefore I Am.

Apologies for the lack of posts of late, all will become clear in my next post - I promise.

For the mean time, while I get my act together, why not check out this awesome project bag from Astor Knot.

 

Hate to admit that I've been feeling this a lot lately!

Give Peas A Chance.

The Saturday just gone was a day of progress and a day of breakthrough. The glorious spring sunshine had spilled over into my wonderful country garden, and I couldn’t resist bringing my knitting outside with me to try and tackle something I’ve been wrestling with for a while.

The undeniably gorgeous weather that led me gardenward.

  Before I even began knitting, before I even knew what a purl stitch was, I fell head over heels with Amigurumi. I persuaded my mum to buy a few books, in the hope that she would be as encompassed as me and would want to knit me some of the adorable creations that lined the pages. Alas, my mother didn’t, and as soon as I had a basic grasp of knitting, I dug a few of the books out of my mum’s ‘to read’ pile. Which, I might add, was not an easy feat, the tower stretches over a metre high, and is made of rather heavy cooking and knitting books. 

Apparent book-related danger aside, I’ve always had an affectation with all things Japanese, from manga to sushi, it seems I can’t get enough. Flicking through the book, I wanted to attempt something small. In my naïve mind, I thought that smaller things would be easier to do. Oh, how wrong I was.

When you’re not a confident user of double-pointed needles, it is recommended that you steer well clear of things that require you to split six stitches between three needles and work from there. I did not heed this advice. It is extremely difficult, endlessly frustrating, and hopelessly fiddley. So, for the past few months, when I had been feeling particularly dextrous, I’ve had a go at following the pattern in this book to make this tiny bird.

Photo from [http://www.flickr.com/photos/kathrynivy/4800103514/]

  Looks simple enough, right? Well, until a few weeks ago, I didn’t even know how to use DPNs properly. I meant well, but I’m pretty sure that, should my attempts have been at a public knitting event, many tears would have been shed due on account of my lack of form and general ignorance. I was essentially just tying some yarn to three sticks. Thanks to the workshop, I have a new found confidence, and this led me to pick up pattern and yarn on this sunny Saturday just past. 

I’m not going to lie to you; I undid and redid it about 6 times. I deviated from the pattern in ways that I couldn’t explain to you even if I tried, but, finally, I came out with something that resembled my end goal.

My Hap-Pea! You have no idea how many pea-related puns I'm sitting on right now.
You're exceedingly lucky that in this entire post I've only used 2.

The yarn is an unfortunate colour for a bird to be, so instead, I have made a pea. Out of what yarn, nobody knows. I found it attached to some vintage needles in my house and decided to pinch it and breathe some new, vegetabley life into it. I have no shame in admitting that it is stuffed with the filling from my dog’s bed, which fortuitously for me, had been ripped open a week previous. I have, however, found a glorious free pattern for tiny pigeons, made out of one of my favourite yarns, Knit Pick's Palette. I'm definitely going to attempt this soon.

I cannot convey the joy and pride that has resulted from such a silly little creation. I hope to hone my Amigurumi skills over many more projects, and hopefully one day, actually make the bird I was supposed to!

Sock it to me.

Once I had finished those mittens (photos to follow) from a few posts ago, I was at a loose end as to where to go next. The whole ordeal was so traumatic, that, if I’m honest, I wasn’t really keen to start anything new. My mum tentatively suggested socks, and before I could say no she presented me with some sock wool and some DPNs. I’d love to tell you the type of wool, but my mother is a chronic hoarder and has probably lugged this about with her since the late eighties, and thus it would be no use to you even if I could decipher the label. I was keen to learn how to learn on DPNs, it was on my list of new skills I want to conquer, and so I was eventually persuaded. It looked hugely complicated, and I had no idea what to do with all the needles I had just been handed. Mum didn't take too well to my constant delight and very apparent hilarity of using them as chopsticks to pick up everything in my vicinity and bother the dogs.

With a lot of help, I cast on the required number of stitches and set to work. It seemed to be going well, as long as I kept my focus on the two needles I was using at the time, I was able to get to it. However, once I had move past the rib and onto the main 'tubey' bit of the sock, it dawned on me that I appeared to be knitting it inside out! I still don’t understand how that happened, but I was thoroughly concerned. After mittengate, I just wanted to be able to do something, anything, right! My mum, not being a great sock knitter, simply pushed it through the needles ready for me to carry on when I picked it up again. I knew this wouldn’t have solved the problem, so with the help of Sharon at work, and a whole bunch of YouTube videos, I was able to sort out in my head where I went wrong.

My project in all it's glory! (The extra needle is simply
holding it in place).

 Thankfully, when I got round to picking it up again I could see where I had been knitting into the back rather than the front, and felt altogether more confident about carrying on. I have to admit, and I know a few dedicated socksters that will hate me for this, that it’s a bit boring. There, I said it. I am, however, being led to believe that this isn’t always a bad thing. After a long day, I don’t want to use up loads more energy on concentrating on ridiculously complicated patterns - a sock is the perfect thing to get on with when watching a semi-engrossing movie. However, when I’m really in the mood for knitting, sitting and doing 60 rows of the same thing isn’t exactly enthralling. I think I am too addicted to finishing things. I like things that knit up quickly, but look as if they didn’t. I suppose that’s the eternal demand of impatient knitters like me. 

Trauma struck when one of my plastic DPNs smashed into a thousand pieces and littered various domains of my room. Apparently they don’t stand up to being sat on, which is understandable really. I can't hold this against sock knitting, but I thought that I should be honest with you about my foolishness! It was a slight delay to my project, but thankfully they come in sets of 5 and I only needed 4. Oh needle manufacturers, how well you know me.

The triumph of conquering double-pointed needles is undeniably great. It felt like a huge milestone, and now I’m getting fairly confident, it feels like I’ve opened a huge door in the knitting world. It is complicated at first – for goodness sake, it’s like knitting on the Blair Witch Project symbol. (Yes, I just referenced a film that is over 10 years old, so shoot me!) It’s one of those things that has left me wondering why on Earth anyone would think that knitting on 2 needles wasn’t enough for them. I can see it’s useful, sure, BUT WHY WOULD YOU INVENT IT?

Blair Witch Symbol [Source: http://www.answers.com/topic/blair-witch-vol-1-rustin-parr]

Knitting on DPNS. [Source: http://mochimochiland.com/2011/09/how-to-knitting-with-double-pointed-needles/]

And another thing! How the heck are you supposed to carry this thing around? It's a monstrosity - with needles sticking out everywhere. I don't move my knitting around a lot, but trying to get this thing to knit club was a nightmare!

For now, the socks have taken a back seat, as there is a baby expected in the family any minute, and I am working on some very exciting things that I shall reveal to you only in the fullness of time.


Stay tuned!