hear my voice

really, hear my voice.  On Rav Day, Girl & Dean interviewed lots of knitters and they’ve now put together a couple of fun short films from those interviews – there’s a bit of me on the WWKIP one.

Excellent sound track, too.  BRMC & knitting, great combination.

growth

Quite a lazy weekend here.  Went to the local World Wide Knit in Public Day yesterday, it was nice to sit and knit in the textiles gallery at the Whitworth, almost felt part of the exhibition.  Made some more progress on my summer chevron

Although an MMBSS¹ project like this gets boring after a while, I am liking making a jumper top down in the round.  I love that you can try it on as you go, making it easy to tweak the fit.   And of course, there is no seaming waiting for me at the end.  On the other hand, although I’m getting better at working with circular needles, I do miss ‘proper’ knitting on lovely long straight needles.  My next planned project is another green MMBSS jumper but this time worked flat, so back to the trusty straights yay.

Lots of green going on right now, as our teeny ‘veg patch’ on the balcony is coming on.  Thinned some of the salad stuff this afternoon and had fresh salad with our tea.

rocket, chard, beetroot leaves and teeny tiny radishes nom nom nom.

1.  Miles & Miles of Bloody Stocking Stitch

happy day

I didn’t want to go the library to study today, but I managed to drag myself away from the sofa and the knitting and get some work done. And the knitting goddesses smiled on me for my dedication. When I got home, there was a huge parcel of wool waiting for me from Lerwick.

I ordered this at Ravelry Day on Saturday, so that’s pretty good service.

little things …

I love shade cards, they make me happy. I don’t know why, exactly. Perhaps it is the siren call of new yarn? And also childhood memories, I remember my mum choosing yarn from shade cards.  Anyway, I was pleased to pick up some shade cards at Ravelry Day.

A major drawback of ordering yarn on-line is the unreleability of computer monitors’ colour representation. Is not a big problem for one hank of sock yarn (not a big cost and even if you hate it when it arrives, it’ll do someone else) but it is a gamble ordering a jumper’s worth sight unseen. And while I do support my local LYSs, they can’t always meet my colour/weight/content/price needs on a particular project (and distance buying is not a new phenomenon, my mum bought wool by mail order in the 70s).

Now I have the Jamieson & Smith cards I can order from them knowing the colours I’m getting. Am looking forward to my Ravelry Day order arriving from Shetland soon; the colours I’ve bought are indicated on the photo above.

didn’t we have a lovely time

at UK Ravelry Day? Yes we did! I had such fun meeting & making knitting friends, having tea & cake (and later, wine & ice cream sundaes) while knitting and talking knitting. Old friends, new friends, Manchester friends, internet friends, … it was great to sit and chat and knit with so many lovely people.

Oh and the shopping! A bit of rain wasn’t going to come between us knitters and stash enhancement opportunities. And there were many opportunities, even if the alpaca was all off-limits to me.

I did go with a wish-list (and having given myself a strict talking too about not spending all my money on sock yarn) and met so many lovely yarns it was hard to choose. In the end I came home with

Clockwise from top left:

• 1 x Natural Dye Studio Dazzle sock yarn in the most perfect blue/purple colour
• 2 x GEM Teeswater in a stunning red, which I think is going to be a Rose Red beret
• 1 large cone of Frangipani 5ply Guernsey in Greystone, for another Go for Baroque jacket
• 1 x Malabrigo worsted in Applewood
• 1 x Old Maiden Aunt sock yarn in ‘Hebridean’ amazing greys
• 10 x 25g Jamieson & Smith 2ply laceweight

And …. also placed an order with Jamieson & Smith, which is coming by post – a jumper’s-worth of Shetland aran for a Bountiful Bohus cardigan.  I am kind of wondering at the crazy of knitting a project that is steeked (!) out of wool that felts if you look at it but the Shetlanders have been doing it for a long time and it seems to work out for them.  And I met knitters on Saturday who assure me steeks are nothing to fear, so I am going for it.

Oh and I got the buttons for the cardigan too, from the Textile Garden stall.  It was 3 deep all day, their button selection is teh awesum!

and possibly best of all … I got my own real, genuine ravelry badge!

progress

sari for lack of posting recently, but here’s updates on some current projects:

Granite Socks

pattern: Baby Cable Rib by Charlene Schurch (from Sensational Knitted Socks)
yarn: Regia Line Steps Color shade 5371 Granite
needles: 2.5 mm bamboo dpns

Finished at last, after being on the needles for over 2 months.  I don’t think I’ve ever taken so long to complete a pair of socks, they were sidelined by the pressures of various presents.  I like this pattern and will probably make it again, good for man socks (just don’t tell them the name of the stitch pattern has ‘baby’ in it).

GM Mouse

pattern: based on Easy Peasy Catnip Mouse Toy by Meelai
yarn: Patons UK Spirit, shade 4503 Bracken
hook: 5 mm

Because Sparky seemed to like playing with soft toys as big as himself

Shap Blue Socks

We went to Rivington again this weekend and I got some knitting done under a tree in the Japanese garden.

Decimal

Body & sleeves finished, now just the button bands to do (ugh) and the sleeves to seam (once I’ve learned mattress stitch).  I have gnawing doubts about the fit but won’t find out until it’s all blocked …. fingers crossed.

we need to talk about ‘normal’

So, this whole normal thing …. there are some things I like to do that I acknowledge other people don’t do (which is fine) and tend to think me rather odd for doing (not so fine but hey ho). Those that are yarn related include

• seeking out other knitters to meet, knit and talk knitting with
• buying more yarns despite having several boxes full already
• making friends on the internets
• meeting internets friends in real life  (despite this carrying a better than 50/50 chance of being murdered in my bed by a psychopathic maniac)

Explaining that I am combining all of these quirks into one grand day out to UK Ravelry Day has been  ummm interesting.  Luckily my freinds and relayshuns have had time to get used to me and (after some eyebrow-raising and eye-rolling) have graciously agreed to advance me birthday moneys for my RavDay fund.

Less than 2 weeks to go now, I’m getting all ‘cited.   And as my granny used to say (although admittedly usually accompanied by a disapproving sniff), it wouldn’t do if we were all the same.

Teaser Tuesday

Still doing very little non-study related reading, so here comes another chemistry teaser …

Ozone (O3) occurs throughout the atmosphere, but only ever in trace amounts.  Indeed, if all the ozone contained in the first 60 km or so of the atmosphere could be brought down and assembled at the Earth’s surface, it would form a layer only some 3 mm thick.

p. 9, The Threat to Stratospheric Ozone, K Warr (ed), The Open University, 1996

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
  
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

second s—– syndrome

Second Sock Syndrome is a well known affliction to strike sock knitters, in which the the sufferer happily completes the first sock but finds themself unable to follow through on the second.  Personally, I have never (yet) been struck down with this debilitating condition.  I do however suffer from the related, less well known Second Sleeve Syndrome.  To ward it off I usually try and knit sleeves two-at-a-time.  This saves no time but does make sure you actually make two sleeves (and the shapings match).

However, because I’m making adjustments to the decimal pattern as I go, I decided against making both sleeves at the same time (frogging back is bad enough but doing it on both sleeves = ugh).  I have the first sleeve complete, now I am grinding my way through the second.  Which feels like it is taking forever, but grind on I must as I am determined to have it finished in time for UK Ravelry Day.

In non-knitting news, everybody say ‘awwwwwww’ to our new kitten Sparky

bang for your buck

I can’t in all conscience claim that knitting your own things saves money.  Even with the cheapest nastiest baby-melt you’d be struggling to make a jumper for less than you’d pay for a new one in Primark.   And let’s not dwell on the economics of sock yarns.  But when it comes to gift-giving, knitting makes your money go further with the addition of your time and skill and lurv *.   Some things I have given to people recently ….

Owlie Owlings

pattern: Owlings by Kerrie James
yarn: Green Eyed Monsters GEM Squirrel in owlie-brown
needles: 3.25 mm bamboo dpns

Made for my sister, with some very gorgeous squishy yarn that lovely Kate dyed to the perfect greyey-brown for me.

Green Fluorescent Jellyfish

pattern: Juvenile Sea Nettle by Hansi Singh
yarn: Rowan Pure Wook DK in Cloud and Cedar; Bernat Glow-in-the-Dark Green Glow

Made for my dear friend and unofficial chemistry tutor, because last year’s Nobel Prize for Chemistry was awarded for work on green fluorescent protein, originally extracted from jellyfish (and yes, someone has made green fluorescent sheep so all-natural glow-in-the-dark yarn should be on the market soon).

Tasteful House-Warming Gift

pattern: Toilet Paper Roll and Kitschy Doily by Denise Plourde

*At least I fondly imagine this is so (and ignore any nagging thoughts in those wee small hours that my nearest and dearest dread unwrapping the next ’soft’ present I give them).