A shower of ideas

I always seem to have my best ideas in the morning when I’m in the shower. Don’t ask me why, it just happens.

I’ve been thinking about that end of range Rowan wool, which was left on the shelf on Sunday.  My plan was to buy some of the yarn and then find a pattern for a tank top, knit in the round with a V neck – a bit like this (Yes, buying yarn to do a project which has been designed to get rid of leftovers is rather missing the point). But now I’m wondering if that’s a good idea after all. Even with the reduction in price, that’s at least £30 of yarn and I have more than enough leftovers to get rid of as it is. Anyway, yesterday I had to get theatre tickets, tonight I'm not at work and the next two nights I'm meeting friends, so the earliest I can go back for it is Friday, by which point it may have sold out.  I am still undecided, but leaning towards 'leave it on the shelf and hope that somebody else will take it home and love it' 

Secondly, the Knitting Olympics jumper (although we’re not allowed to call it that, it upsets people ). I was thinking about this one on the train into work. It doesn’t fit, and whilst I could do the maths, knit a gusset for the sleeve and make it fit – there’s another problem.  It’s a loose knit, and therefore more likely to sag and pull out of shape. I've done the same with a scarf which I knit too loosely and I don't really like as much as I could.  There really is no point in slogging on with this jumper, just to have something that looks like a sack on me and I end up hating. Far easier to rip it all back now and use the yarn for something else, that I will actually like and wear. Like a striped vest sweater......

So, I may have gone shopping ....

There's a part of my brain that thinks that, because I'm starting lots of projects (not necessarily finishing them, I have to make clear), then I'm getting rid of my stash.  What I'm technically doing is moving it from the stash box, to the section of the lounge I've now christened UFO corner.  I swear that things are jumping into each other's project bags and are breeding. Either that, or I've run out of tote bags.

Anyway, I had to get some beads for a project, thing.  And some 2mm dpns, to possibly try knitting socks.  (The needles I do have were too big on the gauge), and some of the rather luscious looking Rowan Summerspun in Greenwich and Bayswater.  Covent Garden didn't look as good in real life as it did on the Hobbycraft website and I'm glad they didn't have Hoxton or Maida Vale as I may well have been tempted with them as well.

As an aside, is it a really geeky thing to take the yarn and knit in the part of London which gave the colourway its name?

Doing some internet surfing (the idea being that if I got to particular point of my dissertation by the end of the weekend, then I'd be buying myself some yarn as a treat; it was meant to be a way of getting motivated), I found this from Lorna's Laces - I love anything rainbow coloured and via this blog post I found this rainbow of yarns. Don't they look scrummy enough to eat?

So this all kind of goes against the 'not buying any more yarn until the stash box is empty', which is why I went shopping whilst the husband was at work and can't see where I've hidden the new stash.  I'm quite happy to tell him about the 1 ply pure wool white yarn on clearance, which stayed on the clearance shelf, Rowan Pure Wool Aran (apparently now discontinued*), also on the clearance shelf, or the acid bright yarn which I'd really like to do something with, simply as it's so bright.  

Yup, no problem whatsoever telling him about the stuff I left in the store. 


* - Had I known this at the time, I may have been more assertive in putting the stuff in my basket.  I'm quite justified in checking a pattern I wanted to knit and then go back tomorrow, right?!

Saturday's question

I’ve been pondering what actually makes a knitter.

I have a friend Jangle (because that’s what autocorrect calls her) who knits herself tunic type tops to wear around the house. They have no fixed pattern, are pretty loose fitting and are just made up as she goes along – mostly in chunky yarn with big needles. She is a person who knits. When I was at her flat recently, knitting a striped jumper (stocking stitch, two rows of each colour alternating) she told me that she couldn’t do that with two yarns. Now, I’m not one to argue, but I’m pretty sure that she could with a bit of persuasion. 

 Now I’d class myself as a knitter, because I long for that feel of the needles in my hands. I can look at a garment and mentally work out how it was, or could have been put together. I love seeing what people are wearing as I want to know the stitch pattern. I have ideas about projects I want to design and which yarn would be best for each individual job. I thrill in looking at patterns and deciding that I don’t want to knit it quite the way it is in the pattern,but with my adaptations.  I want to know more about the role knitting and wool has played in our cultural heritage and our farming industry. I love the feel and drape of the fabric as something is developing in my lap… I don’t know if any of this is true for Jangle. 

So what exactly does make a knitter – and is it the same as somebody who just knits?

Youtubings

Every so often, I'll go to a website and do a search for the word 'knitting', just to see what comes up.  Mostly on Youtube this brings up bucket loads of knitting tutorials, which I'm going to have to investigate come September.  (Did I mention I'm trying to write a dissertation ?!)

Anyway, yesterday over breakfast, I came across a gem of a video about Shetland lace and it was a quite perfect way to start the day and encapsulates one of the reasons why I love the art of knitting quite so much.  

Put simply, it's a folk tradition, a way of connecting the generations.  For me, Debbie Stoller hits the nail on the head for me in Stitch and Bitch when she talks about reconnecting with earlier generations, each time she picks up her needles.

I love the fact that people leave their story in their knitting.  Shetland lace patterns were passed down orally, cable patterns on aran jumpers identify the family of the knitter.  I've recently seen a modern pattern where the colours are based on your family's birth stones.  I love that the Shetland lace has bloomed from the qualities of the wool from Shetland sheep (the same I am assuming is true for other farming communities).  It's not a 'granny craft' as people are so keen to tell me, it's a living heritage.

Enjoy.

If, for any reason the video won't play, the link is here

Five things that seem obvious, but I never realised as a newbie knitter*

• There is more than one way to cast on

• You can knit flat on circular needles

• Yarn is more exciting than just acrylic

• Americans have a different system for sizing needles 

• Everything you need is on the internet

* I'm still a fairly new knitter, but despite my inexperience I'm pretty sure I'm past the total newbie stage!

Commu-knit-y

In browsing something or another on the internet recently, I came across project in Yorkshire – knitting mini jumpers as bunting for the Tour de France.  This month’s issue of Simply Knitting magazine has an interview with the person behind it all.  Whilst the deadline of sending mini jumpers has passed, the pattern is here if you’re interested, or want to replicate the project in your front room.

I love the way that this, like other community knitting projects, has caught the imagination of the knitting community.  I love that individually, your contribution can be as big or as small as you want it to be (subject to availability of both time and yarn), but overall the effect is somewhat impressive.  I love that knitting brings people together – in this case from all over the world.

I’ve taken part in the Macmillan Comfort Blankets project (sending squares to make up blankets to give to people who had cancer, but couldn’t easily afford fuel over the winter).  I still have some of the patterns for the squares and would do the project again.  Although I knitted about four or five squares, between us, friends and I put together two blankets; the total being greater than the sum of its parts, or something.  (Whilst patterns for the squares have now been taken down from the Macmillan website, there are a couple still available here) 

Another project I've also seen, is knitted blood drops, to highlight the need for more blood donors.  I love the fact that this has been organised by somebody still doing their A-levels.  There are concerns about how politically engaged young people are, and here we have somebody exhibiting activism through creativity. 

The project I’m looking forward to is the Innocent Smoothies' hats Inspired by what’s gone before, I’ve got lots of ideas I want to try out.  As the deadline is usually around October for completed hats, I may be working towards a batch for winter 2015.  If the patterns on the link above aren't enough - there are even more here. 

But back to the shirts which started the post, I think it’s a brilliant idea and I wish I could see them in the yarn.  Heck, I’m tempted to make a mini bunting to display at home.  I was disappointed to read the reports that the bunting has been taken down from lampposts.  I’m just trusting that the council will play by the same rules when it comes to the Christmas decorations….

Five Things I Found When Clearing Up

• The Rebel Knitters' Guide (which I thought I’d recycled)

• The remains of the jumper I made during the Knitting Olympics (year of which now long forgotten)

• Pattern which may be useful in busting the stash of tape-type yarn

• Coloured paperclips holding patterns together, now replaced by staples and being used as stitch markers instead

• Instructions on how to make a picot edging.

Clearing a path

If there was a word to define the last decade of homecare, I think it would be ‘declutter’.  It’s a ‘bang on trend’ way of living our over-crowded lives, right?  So, when I decided to corral all my books in one place and my yarn into another, it seemed like a good idea.  I mean, I only had a few balls of yarn, right?  I agreed with my husband that once the box was full, I wouldn’t buy any more yarn until I’d done some stash busting.  And since I only had one or two balls of yarn (alright maybe three or four) he’d see that there was loads of space left and I could therefore buy more yarn, right?

Seems the joke was on me.  Not only was the box overflowing, this didn’t include several packages of the inherited yarn stash.  Nor did it include the long thin green eyelash scarf for frogging and re-knitting, the multicolour baby yarn I have somewhere and the half skein of self-patterning sock yarn plus pattern given by J to give me practice at knitting in the round.

Ooops

So, I’m on a yarn buying diet for the time being.  On the plus side, I have a vague idea of what I want to do with all the bits, even if I won’t really have the time to dedicate until the end of September.  And on the very plus side, yarns is squashy, so I could, if really necessary, fit another ball or two in if I really needed to. 

Shame I can’t say the same about the books….

Dream a little dream...

Last night I dreamed about yarn.  More specifically, I dreamed about the sock yarn I was blogging about yesterday.  Even more specifically, I dreamt that I used the Heart and Sole yarn for a shawl or scarf or somesuch.  The yarn felt cheaper and scratchier than I remembered it, and I think I used something else to knit socks with.

Normally, I’d leave this post as a ‘Ooh, I dreamed about knitting; that’s a first’, but I decided to look it up using the Dream Moods dream dictionary and found this:

Knitting 
To dream that you are knitting signifies a quiet, peaceful and loving home life. It may also refer to someone in your life (past or present) who you associate with knitting. Alternatively, knitting symbolizes your creativity or accomplishments. You need to take time out from your regular routine. 
To dream that you have difficulties knitting means that you are avoiding some issue.
To see knitting needles in your dream suggest that you are manipulating a situation in order to get a desired outcome. 

Yarn
To see yarn in your dream symbolizes your connection and creativity. Alternatively, yarn in your dream means that you are stuck in a rut. You are going about your daily life in the same old tired pattern. If the yarn is tangled and knotted, then it implies that you are experiencing some emotional distress or confusion in a situation.

So, I’m creative (check), possibly manipulating a situation (not entirely sure), going through life in the same old pattern (check) and need some time out (check).

So, this time out ?  I does involve knitting, right ?
  

A Guide Makes Good Use of her Time

Once upon a time there were ten Guide laws, one of which was 'A Guide makes good use of her time (now ‘A Guide is helpful and uses her time and abilities wisely). Since my Guiding (and knitting friend) Smudgepuss and I have to get up at stupid o’clock this weekend for a Scout camp (preparation for the World Scout Jamboree in Japan - I’ve already been checked out yarn shops in Tokyo), she’s agreed to use the journey to teach me how to knit socks. 

 Of the stash of sock yarn, I’m taking this one, mostly because I like it least.

 (The mosaic yarn from the same company may well end up being used on wristwarmers instead). The Heart and Sole yarn has a pattern included on the yarn band, which I’ll tackle once I’m more au fait with reading sock patterns. The two basic patterns I’ve been sent by another Guiding/knitting friend are this one (cuff down) and this one (toe up). I’m somewhat scared off by tales of turning heels and cuff down patterns, but there’s only one way to find out if they’re true. 

More excitingly, My Sister's Knitter has a sock yarn knit along on Ravelry. Whilst you don’t have to knit socks, I’ve never done a knit along and this fits quite nicely. 

Will update on how we get on.