Believe it or not...

... some knitting has actually been going on around here (apart from the Lady Sweater which now has one arm which is long enough!); finally got round to taking some photos.

But first, the Eye all redded up for Valentines...

They had the Now Voyager quote "Don't let's ask for the moon, we have the stars" across one set of wall panels, which you can just about seen in the photo above; and another quote "You should be kissed and often, and by someone who knows how" across the other set. I was pleased when I got home and looked it up that I'd correctly identified it. Anyone want to hazard a guess? (Answer at the end of this post...)

OK: the knitting. Two Helter-Skelter Scarves (my own pattern, which I'm looking at putting up on Ravelry after Textiles in Focus is over...)

Although if you know about short-rowing, the photos above and below will tell you exactly what I did without need for a pattern...

And one which looks even better photographed against my kitchen floor...

The yarn for both of these is Lang's Mille Colori - lovely stuff for decent lengths of colour. The only stockist I've used for this is RKM - colours 0057 and 0068 respectively (although my colour balance and RKM's are very different - there is some burgundy in the balance, which doesn't come out in my photo, but perhaps not quite as much as in RKM's sample...

I also made a little blue cowl. The variegated stuff in this one is Araucaria's Quellon; the solid is Regia silk sock yarn (4-ply weight). It's lovely and soft and for the first attempt at a cowl, I think it's come out very nicely. It's just feather-and-fan, 6 18-stitch repeats, random number of rows, random rows of knit and purl...

Some dyeing also happened last weekend; a kilo or so of aranweight wool, now reskeined... I need to price this up for Textiles in Focus; but I think I'm reasonably well set-up for this year's show. Next, finalising the instructions and samples for the classes I'm teaching on Friday and Saturday (there are places left, particularly on the Friday!)

And the answer to the mystery, or not-so-mystery, quote? Rhett Butler, in Gone with the Wind. The full quote goes "No, I don't think I will kiss you, although you need kissing, badly. That's what's wrong with you. You should be kissed and often, and by someone who knows how." (Although possibly not by someone with that moustache...)

FLS again, and some advertising...

Thanks everyone for the lovely comments on the FLS. I am going to make the sleeves longer, because I get really old-fashioned about having a cardigan with shorter sleeves than the top I'm wearing underneath it - it seems like having your slip showing would be for an older generation (or exposing your bra-straps, for mine, but that ship sailed a long time ago). Totally personal opinion... Most of the cardigans I'd be able to buy in the shops in my size would also be three-quarter-length sleeves, which is why I don't buy them... (I'll just have to remember not to wash up in this one - but as I generally get changed when I come home from work, I'm hoping that won't be too much of a problem). Jayne, the buttons came from Peter Jones. I gather they have them in other colours at John Lewis in Cambridge...


In other news, I've been dyeing up a storm for Textiles in Focus. Blatant plug here. I shall be sharing stand-space (as Knitstuff) with two other local Ravelers and one not-so-local. It's a really nice smaller textiles event - about as much knitting-to-everything-else balance as there is at the Knitting and Stitching show (i.e. about 10% knitting, but when that means Woolly Workshop and 21st Century Yarns, it's good company to be in!), but they're all proper stands - you don't get all the papercrafts-and-miracle-cleaning-products stuff - the exhibitions are always very good, and there are probably workshop places left! The details:

Textiles in Focus

Cottenham Village College, High Street, Cottenham, Cambridgeshire

20-22 February 2009

10am-5pm (Friday/Saturday), 10am-4:30pm (Sunday).

£4 entry fee on the door

I hope to make a post with Actual Pictures soon!

Another possibly lunatic project...

... Feeling liberated from the demands of knitting for a stand at a show, or for samples for a class, I suddenly realised that I'm meeting a friend's 10 month old daughter for the first time on Wednesday evening, and that I was such a bad keeper-in-touch that I didn't know baby K existed until a few weeks ago... So of course, she needs a sweater... I went back to Tadpoles and Tiddlers, because it's great for a good basic sweater pattern... And found a 4-ply pattern which was crying out for Kaffe Fassett sock yarn. (The Landscape one, in Fire)...

So I have been sitting, knitting, reading a couple of superb books - Stuart Maconie's utterly wonderful Cider with Roadies which has had me crying with laughter and recognition, even when he's adulating bands I really couldn't stand at the time, and another I'll blog when I've finished it - and doing way too little of the enormous amount of tidying up around here... And catching up on sleep... Anyway, the back and three-quarters of one sleeve has been done - and I am definitely going to run out of yarn - I was hoping the extra yardage on sock yarn, as opposed to the Rowan 4-ply botany in the original pattern, would help me out, but I'm going to be about 10 grammes short. Despite the size of the Stash, there's nothing machine-washable in 4-ply which will do for the top half of both sleeves - none of these are colours I usually go for, apart from the dark pink, but as ever with Mr Fassett's combinations, together they're fabulous...

I'll be the one standing impatiently on the pavement in front of Peter Jones when they open at 9:30 tomorrow morning then - please keep out of my way - I'll be a woman on a deadline; my first meeting's at 10:15...

And as a PS - I do have one photo of last weekend - Caroline, who runs the really excellent White House Arts, wearing a drop-stitch scarf I was very pleased with; made of Patons Baroque (thanks, Jan!) and Louisa Harding Sari Ribbon. Not a good photo - but the one with flash was far, far worse...

Textiles in Focus 08

I'm tired, but nowhere near as tired as I usually am, at the end of this weekend.

I'm sure this is due to Sue, Rosie and Jackie who were amazing over the weekend; helping set up, helping break down, bringing lunch, titivating the stand, and sitting knitting/crocheting... You were amazing, ladies. Thanks. And due to not having a lot to do with the competition, which I've done the admin for over the last few years... Thanks to Pauline for that!

And it was, as usual, a total pleasure to spend 3 days talking to Gill; and obviously a serious hardship to be sitting next to a selection of the stock from Woolly Workshop... Purchases were made.

I was a Bad Blogger (again) though - no photos... Sorry!

Aaaahhhh....

Textiles in Focus is over for another year. Not that it wasn't fun - it was - but I feel as if I've been run over repeatedly by a fleet of pantechnicons carrying the Rolling Stones' entire stage setup. Have just crawled out of the longest hot bath in living memory and am heating up last night's leftover curry, the food of champions.

Another very nice friendly bunch of needlefelters to teach today - two of whom I knew, which is always a little embarrassing, but they said they'd enjoyed themselves... The morning was quiet at the stand but we sold a few things in the afternoon, including Rosie's beautiful Silk Garden short-row scarf, which is going back to Adelaide with its Australian buyer (pictured - there were no mirrors in any of the loos, so I took a photo of her in it for her to see; miracles of modern technology etc. - she also checked she could wear it in half a dozen other combinations...).

I really enjoyed the weekend - chatting to people about knitting and other things, getting the odd freebie from one or two of the other suppliers - viscose fibre for needlefelting (and, potentially, spinning) from Winifred Cottage and some cotton tape from Gill - I think it's called Ibiza, but realise when I shared it out that I've kept the half-balls without the ball-bands on them!

Today's stash acquisition:

16 oz/1120m of CTH potluck worsted - to be combined with the leftovers from St Brigid, when she's done, and an odd ball of Kureyon. I fancy trying a top-down sweater now I've got the Denises, to see if it's easier to make it fit correctly... In the background, the aforementioned cotton tape - which isn't at all stretchy, and in nice colours, and therefore confounds my prejudices about tape yarns. I'm going to try knitting it up in lacy patterns and see how it works.

And to prove they're still alive and haven't been buried under a mound of yarn, we have an illustration of the principle that

if you put yarn on a table and attempt to photograph it, a cat will appear from nowhere; and still manage to look offended.

And last but fabulously; an unexpected, unwarranted present ... I asked UKHK for cool tea-cosy patterns months ago and there was a huge flurry of correspondence with lots of suggestions, but I never got round to making one ... my teapot remained forlornly unadorned. Meanwhile Rosie was designing and making one shortlisted for the NEC - and here is my gift (the photo is not good; I'm going to try and replace this with a daylight shot sometime soon, just as soon as there is actual daylight while I'm in the house...). It is bright, it is bubbly, it has a complicated slipstitch pattern, it fits... and my teapot is warm and happy.

I love it.... thanks!!

Phew

Survived the setup and first day of Textiles in Focus. These are not good photos, but give an idea of what the stand Rosie and I are sharing looked like yesterday.

And also a photo of Gill's Woolly Workshop stand in the setup process. Even more yarn was added after we crawled away for the day... Gill's daughter Catherine (hope I've got the spelling right) is helping this weekend and doing a fabulous job. (She doesn't have an attendant white cat, by the way; she's just wearing very cool furry boots...)

Anyone within travelling distance of Cambridgeshire, you need to see this stuff. There is Silkwood, there is Celestial Merino, there is more Cherry Tree Hill than the mind can comfortably accommodate. There is laceweight and megachunky. There is Adriafil. There are Brittany needles; there are Peace Fleece needles; there are Denises. I can attest to the Denises - I'm now the proud owner of a set and although I don't think I'll ever be a fan of circs (and only own one Addi, in 15mm, the Turkey Baster Size), these are definitely the nicest I've used.

The Olympics shawl has gone on to a circular now as I was starting to pull stitches off the straights when I got her out of my bag. Here she is, looking more like a pile of rainbow-coloured washing than ever. Progress... well. She's waist-length without much stretching, but I've only used about quarter of the yarn, which doesn't bode well given that we're about halfway through the Olympics! But I'm pleading mitigating circumstances on this and hoping to speed up next week. I'm also somewhat confused by this - I've done one repeat fewer than the whole shawlette is meant to be and the size is about right; think I'll just keep on going until I have about quarter of the yarn left at the end of a repeat and then start on the edging. Think I'll be trailing my mini-scales around with me to SkipNorth!

In non-knitting news, two small disasters. The first more major than the second - my iPod Shuffle has stopped working. This could be something to do with my having dropped it onto a pavement yesterday. Possibly. Anyway, it's flashing its little lights, the PC tells me I haven't got a disk in the USB drive and iTunes doesn't want to know. None of the suggested options in the manuals or on the Web work because they presume the PC does at least acknowledge the iPod's existence... Feeling slightly bereft; had to dig my old CD player out for the long, long bus journey to Cottenham this morning.

And the second just amusing. It was a tiring day; I'd generally spend a Friday sitting in front of a PC scowling, producing absurdly detailed work for unappreciative people and exchanging infrequent but surreal comments with my colleagues; and probably also feeling guilty about not making enough tea. Today I got to chat to loads of people about yarn for 7 hours. It was lovely, but totally knackering. I've done this as a member of Fibrefusion, but the sheer embarrassment of it being your own work you're pushing added to the fatigue factor. I sold some stuff; in fact I sold far more than I'd imagined I would (including the sock yarn I hoped to hoard to myself; but see below on that one, I got over it). So come 5:45 pm, when the bus from Cottenham *finally* completed the absurd Byzantine convulsions it indulges in while travelling through the massive Histon/Impington conurbation, and I'd just missed a bus, I headed for M&S food hall in the hopes of decent pizza, salads and wine. Came home, did some sampling for the classes tomorrow, heated up the pizza; attempted to open the wine.

Hmm. Yes, the whole corkscrew *has* just snapped off into the most expensive bottle of wine I've bought for my own consumption in a year or so (nothing exciting; I'm just a serious cheapskate most of the time). But the better corkscrew is still around. Somewhere. Maybe it will gallop heroically to the rescue. Nope, nowhere to be seen. Let's try the time-honoured method of pushing the cork into the wine. Nope again, it's a plastic closure, not a cork, and that trick doesn't work. OK. Let's look for the corkscrew again... and again... Ah, pizza is now cold; let's bung it back in the oven. While we're waiting, let's put away the washing up. Result. I have no idea why the corkscrew is in the washing up, let's just count blessings...

Back to knitting. Today's yarn haul from Woolly Workshop - anticlockwise from bottom, just to confuse things - one skein Celestial Merino in colour Blue Vesuvius (to make up for the sock yarn I sold...), one ball Adriafil Baba, one Adriafil Baroque. Pretty, pretty things...

And we're off (or at least, cast on)...

The Knitting Olympics has started! We met at the Fort St George in England last night - Mary's husband took photos - thanks!


That's me on the left, next to Bekki and Anne. At that point I was still trying to find the start point on my yarn, the end having buried itself thorougly inside the centrepull ball...





And then here on the right are Scarlet and Mary.
Rosie was here too but ducked out of shot for the photos as she's cheerleading the team and wasn't mad enough to put her name down. We watched some of the frankly extraordinary opening ceremony (was reminded fondly of Italian TV) and attempted to get started. Reading charts in a pub while being distracted by other people's fab projects was somewhat of a challenge, but I got this much done by the end of the train-ride home

and think it's going to look rather wonderful when done... Tonight, the Charts Marked B; that's the A charts dealt with...

Today I'm dyeing yarn for Textiles in Focus next weekend - final batch of wool for now is in the steamer (22 skeins dyed today in all) but I've just remembered some Monoprix bargain yarn in nondescript grey I bought several years ago which could do with cheering up. I'll post pics when it's out and drying...