My Attic got plastered!

Squeeeee - I'm so excited.  ALL my stash and equipment is going to be stored in orderly and shipshape fashion in the new workshop/studio up in the attic - and it got plastered yesterday!  Now, all it needs are some cupboards, the electrics and light fittings and a carpet - then I'm all set to decorate and move in the furniture!  Really, this is SO exciting.  My dream of becoming a fully fledged knitting designer and teacher is underway.

The plaster only takes 4 days to dry and then it can be painted -which is amazingly quick.  The attic space isn't huge - but it will be MINE, all MINE - and how many folk are lucky enough to be able to have their own workshop?  DH is just pleased that all my stash can be squirrelled away from downstairs and he can stand a chance of keeping it tidy.  He always was a better housewife than me.

I'm also running a few workshops in the next couple months:

In the village - at my good friend Ruth's glorious house up Mapstone Hill - kitchen a la Provence, scrubbed wooden tables, cats curled up in front of (if not IN) the Aga, dresser piled high with eclectic china and OODLES of room - KNITTING 101 - an introduction to the basics.  Starts Wednesday April 17th 10-12am, and runs for 6 weeks.  Very reasonable at £36 per person, minimum of 3 to run, and maximum of 8.  Refreshments provided - bring your own yarn/needles.

At the HUB in Ipplepen - two Saturday courses:  the first is on March 23rd 10-1pm and will be all about the magical moebius cast on - the second is on April 20th 10-4pm and will be all about FairIsle/stranded knitting and working with colour.  Refreshments available from the cafe - £16 for the half day, £26 for the full day.

Currently working on several Lopi designs but also turning this handspun -  Louet fibre from the P/Hop swop in York last January - into a ruffled, cabled, smoochy 'short row shuffle' shawl.  I had planned to abbreviate all that to 'shoofly' but I discovered on Ravelry that there already IS  a shoofly out there so I'll have to put my thinking cap on for a new name.  The yarn was spun from a pencil roving that had two inch stripes in bright purple/blue/gold all along its length - hard to believe, ay?  It's turned out buttery soft and about DK weight which I'm knitting up on 5mm needles and the pattern is scrumptious and just what it wanted to be.

Good News! I got a letter from my shiatsu teacher Alex this morning - I passed my first year exams - I'm now qualified to give friends and family a really good shiatsu treatment - just got to complete 8 more sessions before I get my certificate. Want to volunteer to be guinea pig? This picture of a scarf blocking on disgustingly pink play mats is the result of a handspun yarn 'round robin' - the scarf has been all round Europe having stripes added by a dozen other knitters! We all started a 'seed' and passed it on - and we all got completed scarves back - interesting ay? It's very snuggly and warm and you too can join in a similar adventure by visiting the scarf journeys forum on Ravelry (THE favourite place to hang out and waste time peruse patterns and probably the one single biggest reason this blog doesn't get updated very often.)

And on behalf of the Spinners, Weavers, Dyers guild and all our various knitting groups, I am organising a coach trip to Wonderwool again this year (for my sins). Not so many takers this year, despite the coach having a loo on board (we were all crossing our legs by the time we got there last year!) Tickets only £20.50 roll up, roooolll up! Coach leaves Bovey Tracey at the ridiculously early time of 06.30hrs on April 10th and we don't get back till 8pm or so. And I won't be buying any more stash. no. I won't.

KTOG this weekend - SUNDAY 17th October, 1-5.30pm in Ashburton - St Andrew's Church Hall, Western Road.
This is the EDiT knitters' fourth annual exhibition - we've been going that long!- and we have the usual stalls - Joyce from Spin-A-Yarn, John and Juliet from Fibre Harvest, Yarnaddict Anni, Vicky from HULU and Claire Crompton - local author will be there too.
There's also some mini workshops - on continental knitting and braided knitting, alongside learn to knit and crochet at the Stitch'nBitch cafe. Raffle in aid of South Devon Womens Aid and the UK National Knitting week charity Bliss. It's also British wool Week this week - so we're supporting that too! £1 entrance, children 10 and under free.

I've a horrible feeling I've underadvertised again.

Hope to see you there!

Not just the humble DISHCLOTH,,,

I've not long finished this garterlac dishcloth, which is my first attempt at entrelac - and was pondering on what an excellent medium for experimentation dishcloths are: small, instant gratification, great for experimenting with new stitch patterns like lace and entrelac. They make great gifts when accompanied by a bar of special soap. They get a lot of flac from some people - there's even a group on Ravelry dedicated to scorning them (well - there's a group for nearly everything on RAV!).
Then I opened my new Yarn Forward issue 26 and it seems new editor Anna Bell has been having exactly the same thoughts! I do like a bit of synchronicity!
And I liked nearly half the patterns in this issue - Adderback gloves (with accompanying fascinating article on knitting in Yorkshire), top down cardi, summertweed girls top, and a couple pairs of socks. There's also a great article on constructing a shetland shawl from Sharon Miller (though I have the book). The best issue yet! (even better than YF24 which published my Lizard Duffle Bag, so I'm biased).

DEAFness and knitting...

Everyone knows I'm quite deaf, but not often that combines so neatly with that other little interest of mine: I LOL when I read this on the "hard of hearing UK" mailing list,

Oh I love live subtitles! On BBC1 10 o'clock news just now, Huw Edwards apparently said, "Right now, Mr Cameron and his wife are over in the Palace of Westminster knitting parliamentary colleagues." :D (OK, so maybe Huw Edwards actually said meeting, but I prefer to believe the subtitles.)

mailto:clare%40catspaw.plus.com

KNITNATION here I come!

I've just signed up for all three days:
Thursday afternoon: - Bias knitting with Cookie A
Friday morning: Spinning fine, and afternoon: popular wheel mechanics, both with Judith MacKenzie McCuin
Saturday: Camp pluckyfluff ALL DAY!

There's an amazing list of knitting royalty going to be there.

Damn and blast. My computer will no longer allow me to upload pics - I think it's something to do with the virus checker :-(
Whatever - it just goes into freeze mode when I try.
(Loaded the pic on the work pc :-)

DOGS

It was so lovely to post on my blog - and get replies - thanks for popping by Heather, Ambermoggie, Rachel and M! (thus I am not alone and woman is not an island?!).

I've been sorting out the admin. for the coach trip to Wonderwool I'm organising on Sunday April 25th - I've hired a 57 seater coach and I've only 4 seats left to fill! Yay! Only problem is that I've got £8 more than I should have - so somebody has paid a deposit but hasn't been ticked off the list - so I'm going to be demanding money off someone who has already paid. Still - would be worse to have LESS money than I should have I suppose. Looking forward to seeing Ambermoggie and Wyesue in the Interactive corner at Wonderwool - there's going to be a meetup of Ravellers there I think. And I can get to have (another) go at longdraw spinning...

Anyway, while I'm sitting here doing this (and reading blogs, checking Rav, and drinking my new favourite comibination of Rooibos and a herby cinammon blend teabag, etc etc), my friend sent me this pic of Syd which made me chuckle.

It almost looks like he could lick the screen, doesn't it? Sara looked after him while I was gallivanting oop SkipNorth since DH won't dogsit. Poor motherless, smelly boy that he is. His mum Tilly died last September and I still miss her so much. Dogs live such short lives.

Gratuitous picture of my Tilly:

Since this post has a doggy theme I'll add this pic too:

This is a pic of WyeSue and Neil's Trigger: - He is an elderly staffy/yorkshire terrior cross and he took a shine to the chocolate muffin totoprype I'd just knitted. I've got to knit a dozen and I'm on my third. Don't ask.

Welcome 2010

Lost my blogging mojo somewhere there in 2009. I stalled mid-rant, writing an essay about an incident in my job too long ago to remember - well nearly. It WAS an incident that tested all the values I hold dear about midwifery so I WILL finish it one day.

So - here we are in 2010 and a fresh new start. Happy Knitterly Knew Year all of youse...
Here I am in a snowy Edinburgh and what a place to start the New Year in - thanks to Chris and Lynn for having me.

I am LOVING Edinburgh: the skylines are amazing, as the city has so many ups and downs - tenement flats have lines of chimney pots on top, and the castle looms over everything - and the sun sets over the back of it and sets the rooftops on fire… The snow just adds to its beauty. I’ve visited the BP portrait exhibition and wondered up the Royal Mile. I’ve also visited the Grass market and had soup and bagels in the ‘Elephant and Bagels’ cafe. Tomorrow I’m going to visit my old friend in the Kingdom of Fyfe (she lives in Tayport), so I’ll be travelling by bus across the Firth of Forth!

I had to get my knitting fix in so I visited the Craf-Tea Tree Tea House Knitters. This knitting group was really well attended - it must be HUGE when the weather is good - and the average age of knitters is half ours! The famous Ysolda was in attendance - she is really very talented and was wearing several of her own designs (that FIT) as well as the owl jumper (which looked cute on her). Nat was also there (my skipnorth friend from the Yarn Yard) and I succombed and bought SIX (yes, 6) skeins of her own dyed merino fingering weight yarn to do some more colour work. I’m thinking fingerless mittens. Lots of. (My entire 'Never Finish a Book' club want a pair of Nancy Bush Estonian mitts each - so that's a dozen I have to finish by this time next year). Buying this yarn means I have already broken one of my many new year resolutions (I repeat, ALREADY!).

There were 12 other knitters and crocheters there: including Tiffin (aka Liz) who taught me to CROCHET! She assured me that there are ONLY FOUR STITCHES - 'scuse the shouting, but I’m a teensy weensy bit disbelieving here. I demonstrated the four stitches to her satisfaction, and - who knows?- maybe this will be the year I actually crochet something other than just a trim for my knitted things. (I did crochet a granny square blanket when I was a nipper - but that was a long, long time ago!). Liz was crocheting (very rapidly) one of those anigarumi things (sp?). I don’t generally like crocheted fabric - but she was using an indigo cotton like yarn and it looked cool.

Last year was full of fibre. I'm hoping this year will be the same - XXX

Wonderful Wonderwool Wales...


Spent the entire weekend at Wonderwool and had a wonderful time meeting up with old friends and making new. Don't think I stopped talking, so apologies if you didn't get a word in edgewise.
Started off by keeping Gill from Woolly Workshop awake - I was very late arriving at the Greyhound Hotel where we shared a room, after driving around Builth Wells several times looking for the place... We shared much wine and banter despite it being past 1am.

I was volunteering on the Knitting and Crochet Guild Stand for the two days - and had these posters made for the event. I'm really pleased with how they turned out.

Now here we have the KCG Mafioso: Mrs White, Mrs Green and Mrs variagated purple with glittery highlights. Look at those needles fly! (Liz (Ali's mum), Ali and Jane in reality).
And what's Stash describing to Rosie - whatever, it was THIS big!

I neglected to take many photographs (too busy yakking) - but these fellas took my eye. The guy on the left has his hand under the box waggling those fish like fury (least I think that's what he's doing). Don't even go there. Scary. I think they were there because Wonderwool coincides nicely with a Welsh Food festival - yummy scotch eggs with myriad coatings and lots of other fattening goodies.There were so many colourful sights to see - here's just one example of soffft beauty.

I ran into Artisan-Anne and her daughter KraftyKath, Maylin, Laal Bear, Mr and Mrs Ambermoggie, WyeSue, Claire Crompton, lots of TeaShop Knitters (Spinning Janey, Chris, Jaebird, Jillliv) and Devon Spinners, Weavers, Dyers who came up in a coach (via Cardiff??!) on the Saturday plus lots more who know who they are and sorry if I've left you off the list...

One of the things I love about Wonderwool is meeting our fibrey friends in the flesh: here are a couple of alpacas, who I saw being taken for a walk around the fields on Saturday night after the show.

As I left the show I was greeted by a rainbow over the Brecon Beacons...

And goodbye Wales, croeso i Lloegr!

Driving over the Severn Bridge...



But What Did I buy? Far too much - I've spent my fibre allowance for the year now (well, at least until the knitting cruise at the end of the summer). This is what I got from KCG: a big cone of cheviot laceweight wool from the Joan Boardman legacy. A couple of cute cards, and some Rowan DK black 'soft' from Stash. the pink stuff is going to be fingerknitted for workshops at the Contemporary Craft Show in Bovey Tracey in June.


This was my bargain find: Alchemy Haiku Kid Silk/Mohair. This was from a destash courtesy of a Mrs B and two and a not quite complete third skein of 'equinox' colour for £12. Normally this stuff retails at £17 EACH! (at my LYS anyway).

The beads and stitch markers were also a bargain from the Natural Dye Studio. The laceweight hand dyed pandora from Artisan Yarns is for Aeolian shawl when I pluck up courage.

I saw the fat fairy godmother looking for a cinderella and thought of my friend Sandra: This is for her. The green merino (700g) was all of £10 and from JohnArbon at Coldharbour Mill/Alpaca UK. I also got the bosworth spindle from P&M woolworks - which is just as well as I've just broken the Golding I've got. Apparently P&M are stopping supplying them which means you won't be able to get them at all in the UK. The fibre is the yak/silk I bought at Skipnorth. I also bought two pairs small size knitpicks options (or Knitpros as they seem to be called now) to add to my collection. Stash had knitted RAJ shawl in sari silk and I fell in love. So I bought 5 skeins from the Threshing Barn and have ordered the pattern. I will finish this to wear on the Knitting Cruise.Finally I had been given a mission by Myrtle: yarn for a collaborative project and this was it. Great fun! I've started balling it up already and knitted the first square.

I also attended two workshops while I was at Wonderwool: modular knitting and dorset buttons. The modular knitting was no better than WyeSue's, and the dorset buttons I've now mastered. The board on top is Caroline Mace's display of buttons.



I had to remember to buy the boys at home something too: They got a pudding each from the PUdding Compartment, and also some garlic and olives.

All in all, a lovely time and I couldn't wait to get started on all the projects I've got in mind. Here's the will o'the wisp I've started with the haiku. There should even be enough left over for a (fiery) ice queen!

There are loads of links to be added to this post but I'll do that later. Got to work sometimes!

Skip North 2009

And it was all over so quickly ~

I started off a day earlier this year, though, with the usual last minute pack and late arrival at WyeSue's place in Hereford (driving down country lanes in dense fog is not my idea of fun). We began the adventure the next morning, standing on her bed looking at the wildlife in the garden: two wild ducks shagging on the pond. I kid you not. DH reckons that Mrs Duck got off lightly with the mild ducking that she received during the procreative act: apparently if there are more than one suitor, she can drown!

Here is WyeSue trying to load the car - and this is BEFORE we even get there! Yep, she's having yet another destash...

We made good progress and got to Texere about half an hour before it closed. I didn't buy much here, but made notes for a future visit - just a big piece of soft leather which I thought might be good for soles on knitted booties.

Then we headed up to Mankinholes - which is a youth hostel set in beautiful countryside above Hebden Bridge not far off the Calderdale and Pennine Ways and just how I imagined Yorkshire would be.
We were joined by the 'Edinburgh crew' (that's Nat, Isabella, Margarete and Sally with WyeSue in the pic) who had also journeyed down early to visit Texere and here we all are after supper in the dining room, enjoying an early start to Skipnorth examining spoils, drinking wine, knitting (of course)...


Next morning up bright and early to be greeted by mist and the view of Stoodley Pike Monument on the hill behind the YH. After breakfast and clearing up, WyeSue and I decided to hike up to it -not as far as it looks, but a steep climb.

We strolled past brand new lambs as the sun began to warm the air and clear the mist.

The monument is covered in graffiti... How did they do it? I managed to climb up to the first level but the rest defeated me. Nice view, and here I am, modelling my finished Bettna.Quicker coming down than up, and we are greeted by these less than woolly sheep back in Mankinholes.

SkipNorth proper takes place at another youth hostel in Haworth - a far more urban setting, but a beautiful building (used to belong to the local Mill Owner). I led my first ever knitting workshop - with a colour theme - that afternoon and got positive feedback. Several participants had done colour classes with some well known knitters and reckoned my class was superior (head swells). There was a good selection of workshops on offer: dyeing, lace, filet crochet, colour and modular knitting.

And in the evening we spread out into four rooms (including the dining room) and brought out the knitting and spinning, cake and wine... There's nothing quite like getting together with a bunch of likeminded people and knitting. There was a LOT of enabling going on!

This work of art belongs to and is being demonstrated by the Spinning Fishwife - it's a spinning wheel operated by a pendulum. There's more about it on her blog.

Saturday and we pile on two coaches, appropriately labelled 'knit' and 'crochet' - there were double the number of us this year. I was a little apprehensive about the large number of folk but I needn't have worried - everyone was very happy to mingle and the group seemed very inclusive.

First we went to Coldspring Mill - Then we were in the second bus getting lost on the way to Lee Mills. We caused an obstruction on a major highway whilst awaiting directions... Once there we were shown a little selection from the Knitting and Crochet Guild collection - and the display was propped against the banana boxes - what other museum shows you around the warehouse? It doesn't really show the Guild in its best light...And yet, they have some wonderful treasures tucked away: We also visited the Skep - a small knitting shop and this wonderful haberdashers - which hasn't changed its contents since the 1950s I shouldn't wonder.

Later that same day, we celebrated Kiwi Sue's 50th birthday... And I can be found picking up signals from alpha centauri...The final Sunday I took no pictures - I was too busy perusing the treasures at Winghams. As you can see, I managed to contact an alien species the previous night, who accomplished the transplant of several large breasts onto my chest whilst I wasn't looking. Either that, or they're the ones LittleLixie gave me for our Baby Friendly Initiative project... Must give them to the Health Visitor. Breast Feeding Week coming up!

All in all, a bigger and even better SkipNorth than last year thanks to LittleLixie and Nickerjac's fab organisational skills, and I'll go again next year if I'm still around.

What spoils did I bring home with me?:I bought this chunky auracania to knit a jumper from ColdSpring Mill, and those rather lovely knitting needles from the Skep. The couple balls of Noro Shikisai became Ishbel as a present for Bev in thanks for dogsitting. There's some sock yarn from Coldspring there too, and 200g undyed lace weight yarn from the KCG yarn mountain. The knitted thing is flat feet for socks (thanks Nic) ... All lying on that large piece of leather I got from Texere.

Moving on - this is the stash I swopped or acquired over the weekend from other SkipNorthers... Some of it was for The Yarn Yard p/hop charity Medecins Sans Frontieres UK - and I've made a donation to the cause (see widget in side bar to watch the astonishing progress toward £2000 - better still donate - tiz an excellent cause)

A lot from the following pic came from Winghams - and some bits are a present for a Ravelry swop 'focus on Handspun'. There's also some dyes, buttons from the haberdashers, and books from the KCG.Finally, fleece! That grey ball is North Ronaldsay sheep fleece and was a present from Isabella and is already spun up and awaiting knitting. It's wonderfully soft. The green brown fleece is from Wye Sue's destashing. There's some scottish llama top left corner and next to that is undyed BFL. I also bought 100g of yak/silk which is so amazingly soft it feels like bunny. And I nearly forgot - that's Spunky Eclectic (aka Abby's yarns) batt in there too - looking pink/brown which I got from Margarete (TA!). It's very soft and shiny with hints of red in it, and seems to have all sorts of natural fibre from alpaca to silk thrown in. My batts look nothing like this! I've already spun that one up too.There are some little carders down the front from Winghams which have turned out to be just the thing for flick carding the shetland fleece I bought at Wonderwool last year.

Here's what I've been doing with that baby carder - I've been trying to spin the shetland as fine as I can to knit a shetland lace square for this year's Weaver's, Spinner's, Dyer's, Guild shetland challenge. That's my wee Golding spindle which is just right for spinning fine.

All in all, I had a fabulous time and it was so good to meet up with old friends and make new.