Sahar: proof positive of knitting life...

I have been knitting; honestly. I'm just aware I haven't blogged any for ages. Some of this has been that delay you get where you knit a present, or do a test knit, and then can't present it for ages. Some of it has just been indolence. Most of it, frankly, has just been that all my blogging time (and honestly, most of my energy) over the summer and since has been sucked into the whole KnitCamp experience, and the earlier and later fiascos. Even from the point of view of a student and observer, it's been completely knackering. I hope to catch up at some point. And some of the things I've made have been really lovely even if I say so as shouldn't.

However, just about a month ago, Franklin put up a pattern on Ravelry for download which somehow just screamed "KNIT ME!!" in a way very few things have recently, despite the huge wealth of patterns out there, particularly as I knew exactly which yarn I was going to use. So despite having 114 things in the Ravelry queue ahead of this, and a lot of yarn at home, I found myself in John Lewis buying Rowan Felted Tweed a couple of days later, and casting on in the pub (yes, I had brought appropriate needles and the waste yarn with me. I was a Brownie and a Guide. On occasions, I am Prepared).

That evening I had this

and was sort of entranced. There's a switch every 6 rows in the first pattern which stops you falling into complacency, but it's a switch like the end of a long seam in sewing, or (for those of us just old enough to remember) the ding of the bell of the typewriter at the end of a row; not too jarring, just a little reminder that something needs to be done.

There's not too much of any part of the pattern to be boring (Summer into Fall and Wibbo's as-yet-unpublished Gallimaufry compare with it for sheer enjoyment) but the DK weight yarn also makes it a comparatively fast knit. There's a provisional cast-on at each end, grafting/Kitchener stitch in the middle, and then picking up and knitting around the edge to make a border (which isn't a huge border, but still takes up about a quarter of the yarn). The picking up and knitting is dead easy if you just follow the instructions. I found a tiny error on one square of the final row of the border; which is, of course, fixed now.

A little over a fortnight after casting on I had this:

and then a few days later managed to get a photo of the actual colour of the thing.

Pictures are clickable to embiggen (despite the Firefox upgrade which means I'm having to go back to IE to link to Flickr...)

Bravo, Franklin, and thanks for the pattern. It's been a while since I was this single-minded about a piece of knitting; I think this stole will be lounging negligently around on the sofa this winter, on the rare occasions when it's not wrapped around my neck.

Lovely day

I had a great day today - went down to the V&A to meet Franklin and Tom. There was a brief, horrible period between about 2pm yesterday afternoon when sparkleduck let me know that there were no trains on the usual route today (thanks! I'd have been completely lost otherwise), and getting onto a rail-replacement bus first thing this morning, when I did wonder whether it would happen...

This was the view while I was walking through the village early this morning...

... and this was the replacement bus. The fact the company was called SABLE was rather reassuring...I thought my photos were actually better than they are... But here's a slightly strange one - three of us with cameras on a staircase.

No, Tom's head didn't really ignite; here he is later, examining some slightly dubious lions... There were quite a few very odd animals in the collections today - a dog crushing a snake on top of a cushion was definitely one which made us all giggle...


It was a lovely day; they're excellent company and we had fun. More photos of things in the collection soon.

Meanwhile just a reminder of Franklin's talk at I Knit London on Tuesday night (November 10), 6pm onwards...

All around the houses...

Some more pictures from last night and the I Knit London event with Franklin, first. As you can see, and if you know me and look at the IKnit Flickrset, I inadvertently picked an absolutely prime position despite the place being completely packed - Gerard moved the furniture around us and lo and behold (or sole and beheeled as my Dad would have it) I was in the front row. Cool. These were taken from alarmingly close range (and I still couldn't get them in focus... not sure if it's this camera or me!).

Anyway, there was a bit of intro

and then some reading of pieces from the book (pages 90-94 and 58-61, if you've managed to lay hands on a copy - I'll have mine at KTog tomorrow...) -

and yes, he's another of those rare authors who really ought to read their own stuff and it was very funny indeed...

And then there was a Q&A, during which people seemed to be inordinately interested in the Guys with Yarn calendar, for some reason...

Then there was signing. Yvonne has blogged about her request today (well, one of them - go on, Y, tell us about the other one!)... I didn't get a pic of the signing...

And then there was general emptying-out of the shop (it was packed. Did I mention that??) and a relaxing...

Today I had a rare treat. I work in quite a famous building in the middle of London, the one with the clock with the bongs on the end of it [yes, I'm being evasive here. We have no policy on blogging at the moment but I suspect that I won't be able to identify where I work when we do have such a policy and I'm trying to avoid words-that-Google-will-find]; and I'm able to take a couple of people round at a time, if I grab an afternoon off.

Such it was with Franklin and Tom - and they were fantastic company, two witty, erudite gents... We had two little glitches - somehow we managed to miss each other during security, so they ended up inside the building while I was sitting knitting outside, which seems wrong, somehow. I still have no idea how that happened... Thankfully Tom is in possession of more commonsense than me, so came and found me - I'd introduced myself the previous evening, but doubtless the sitting-knitting-a-sock-while-waiting-thing was a bit of a giveaway too... Not, of course, that we Cambridge knitters carry emergency knitting. Obviously not.

The second glitch was that while my bit of the organisation wasn't meeting that day, I'd forgotten to check that the Other bit of the organisation wasn't either. And it turned out they were; and they went on for quite a while.... Thankfully there's a lot of the building to see, and somewhere to have tea while waiting for them to finish their deliberations!

We did this first, which was fun, and gave us a chance to talk about politics, particularly after the events of last week... and then we had a wander... I gave as much of the tour as I could, and several off-piste excursions, before we declared temporary defeat and went for a cuppa; then we were able to resume the tour. There are very limited opportunities for photography, but we did manage to take a couple. I am reassured by the knowledge that Tom can take photos which are no better than mine with my camera (I really do think there's something bizarre about the focus), but it's a record of the day...

... and here's one I took much later, before we all headed in our separate directions.

As Franklin said about the experience, "It's nice, if you like that sort of thing...."

Thanks, guys; it was a lovely afternoon. And Bon voyage ... (I went through the Tube station again a few minutes after we parted, and the harpist had just started yet another rendition of My Heart Will Go On, by the way...)