Almost tempted!

Yes, I am almost tempted to get a spinning wheel. I do not know why, but I found it mesmerising to watch folks at the spin-in produce yarn out of fluff. Trying to tell myself I really DON'T need any more gadgets and hobbies. I have a loom and a CSM I've yet to get to grips with.

Sheesh!

Woolfest 09

The tent is up and it's time for tea


Impromptu spin and knit-in at the campsite - there was an official one in the BnB that was £2.50 a head, I don't think anybody wanted to pay though!


Friday dawns - a perfect day


This fellow was camera-shy


Seating being at a premium inside, we sat up by the car park for lunch


Rare breeds demonstration. There was some head-butting going on (the sheep, not the owners)


Not sure which stand this was - First4yarn or Fun to Knit - they had lots of scrummy Colinette!




Fleece sale area



Spin-in - never seen so many spinning wheels in the same place at once


My haul - two skeins of Fyberspates sock yarn, one skein of Colinette Jitterbug, a DPN case that will serve well for lace bobbins, a knitted sheep, a sheep bum-bag that needs some modifications, some sari silk ribbon and a book about weaving. Also bought 2nd heddle kit, 2nd heddle and reed for table loom, not shown.

General verdict? An excellent day - not sure I would need two days unless I was on one of the day-long workshops. There was not enough seating at all at peak times, so we ended up sitting on the hill overlooking the venue. There was supposed to be seating in the Blogger's Corner/Kindred Knitters area, but it seemed to be full of stalls.

The campsite was great, but had the shower/toilet and washing-up sink all in one unit (there were two) so there was a major queue for showers this morning - luckily I had one the night before!

Cockermouth seemed like a nice little town. By the time we made it into town (8pm), nobody would serve us food, so we ended up with fish n' chips outside the church. Oh well, their loss!

The weather was pretty good all day on Friday, not that it mattered as we were indoors for most of it. An excellent show, and I almost crossed over to the dark side (spinning) - but I KNOW I'd HAVE to get a spinning wheel if I did.

Worked on Blusa Queen and Kimi alternately to give arm muscles a rest.

Oop North

Right, off to Woolfest in about an hour. Taking camera, hope to remember to get it out and take loads of pics!

Can't find the satnav, so using the old-fashioned methods (map reading). What does one do, when one can't locate the satnav?! It needs one of those keyfinder fobs attached I think! :)

Ravelry Day 2009 signpost

Ravelry Day 2009
Originally uploaded by urban loiterer

That was me, that was! I never went back to take them down, I wonder if it's still there?! :)

OT: pudding

I have a fantastically easy recipe for chocolate pudding (with chocolate sauce) which takes about 5 mins in the microwave, courtesy of an ex-work colleague. Seeing as the Cog managed to score not one but two jars of white hot chocolate powder, I thought I might try substituting it for the cocoa. The verdict? Needed more cooking, and was rather sickly sweet.

I think I'll stick to cocoa, next time.

Two FOs: Tori and skirt with frills

Mad sewing session on Saturday night ('til midnight!) whilst watching "Blow" with a blonde Johnny Depp. It's sitting a bit low on Miss Amelia - I think she's a little slim for it. The double frill is attached to the lining. It's Simplicity pattern 4138 (as was the previous skirt). Next stop, 4273 - three piece suit.


Finished on Saturday. Pleasantly cool to wear. Yes, it does need blocking/pressing - it's been screwed up in a bag for months.

Having bemoaned Rowan discontinuing this yarn, some kind Raveller pointed out a sale at Kemps. What can I say? Some more fell into my online basket. Whoops! If I have any money to spend at Woolfest this weekend it'll be a miracle. Hoping the bamboo turns up in time, I want to make Kimi. It's a cardigan with draped fronts.

So - onwards and upwards with Blusa Queen for now.


Current mood: happy

De-junking a purchase

Well, the panic is over (somewhat). The table loom I bought on Sunday is without a reed - it has a frame for the beater, but the seller's gone rather quiet, which is very annoying. It's like selling a car with three wheels - you just wouldn't get away with it normally. But I am a noob when it comes to these things, so I failed to spot the missing component. The reed is used to beat down each row of weaving; it's a bit useless without it. I'm guessing she has other looms and has kept it for herself. Naughty.

Had a conversation with a nice chap at P & M Woolcraft and I'll need to shell out £45 for a reed (and there are different sizes for different thicknesses of yarn, so I might be looking at TWO reeds. Yikes!). All is not lost. Phew! 'Cause £150 is rather a lot to shell out on a piece of wooden junk, otherwise. There's so many things I want to try out, having got Anne Dixon's Handweaver's Pattern book for Christmas. There are some eye-boggling overshot patterns, but I think I'll start out with something simple like log cabin. P & M are going to Woolfest next weekend and he's promised to bring some reeds for me.

I've cut out all the pieces for the next skirt I'm making. This is white cotton with blue flowers, a stiffer cotton than the other one. Mum was quite impressed with my skirt, she said the hem looked complicated. It wasn't, it's just two pieces of fabric shaped like squares, with a circular hole in the middle. The circular part joins onto the main part of the skirt.

Of course, I've had some jokers at work delight in pointing out the hem's not straight. Well, durr! My next sewing project is to make a three- or four- piece business suit (jacket, skirt/trousers, shell top). I'm loving this creativity - garments that actually fit, and don't cost the earth. I can't understand why everyone's not doing it, actually! Next I want to have a go at making shirts/blouses. The Cog is always complaining if he buys a shirt based on his neck size, that the torso is too full. I got a very good book on pattern drafting, so maybe I can draw up a personalised pattern just for him. It would really be "made-to-measure" then.

BTW, has anyone spotted the current EDF advertising campaign? ("Green Britain Day", www.edfenergy.com). Can't find the graphic (it's an animation) - it's a Union Jack flag made out of various green fabrics. I really want to have a go at making a patchwork like this, but using different colours for each "flag". Heh - I make one skirt and suddenly I'm a patchwork expert, eh?! Why walk if you can run?! ha ha.

On the knitting front, I'm onto the second and last sleeve for the Tori top, which shouldn't take too long as it's a short sleeve and gets smaller/quicker as you go. Loving the feel of bamboo tape, it's so soft and drapey. Hope it washes ok at 30, I don't really fancy handwashing. Dammit. I rather fancied knitting "Kimi", too - only to find out that Rowan has discontinued Bamboo tape. Kimi requires 17 balls. Yes, you read that right. 17!?&!?!&! Oh, and the revamped knitrowan website? Slow as anything. Do they keep treacle in their servers?! :D

Helping out at the Machine Knitting Guild AGM all day tomorrow - it's in the next village, this year, so ideal for me to get to (I could almost cycle, but I probably won't!). If you're a machine knitter in the Dunchurch area of Rugby you should drop by and say hello! i'll probably be making tea and coffee.

A year and a day (2 FOs)

According to Ravelry, it's taken a year and a day to make this jacket. Not entirely true, of course - my attention has just been on other projects!


Handkerchief hem skirt. Wearing it today!

As always, click for a bigger picture.

Glad I hibernated the Rowan Tori top - I'd completely futzed the front, and the way I was going, there would not have been enough yarn for the sleeves. Onto first sleeve already!

Productive day

Yesterday I finished the DB patchwork cardigan (yes, I did frog that sleeve and fix that errant cable), and I finished sewing my first skirt. It's white with a turquoise flower print and has a handkerchief hem. I need to put some elastic in it tonight. I have material for another skirt; it is a similar pattern, but it has ruffles attached to the lining. Next I have a suit (jacket and trousers) pattern I want to try. This sewing lark isn't that hard, actually. College got me started, but I'm mostly self-taught.

Started work on the Rowan Tori top. It's in cream bamboo tape, which knits like butter. I seem to have mislaid my entire collection of straight knitting needles, so the Knitpick Pro Harmonys are getting a test run.

Argh!

The good news is I finished the DB patchwork aran cardigan AND sewed it up. The bad news? There's a messed-up cable on one of the arms. I'm tempted to show it to the knitters tomorrow, see if they can spot the mistake! Argh, my path is beset with errors!

I might unpick it anyway, it's only a few hours work. I wondered why the sleeves weren't quite the same length.

Managed to cut /unpick enough pieces to make the skirt. Need to attach hem and make a waistband tonight, if there's time.

Photo eassy - bits and bobs

My new loom


Lace bookmark in progress


Cute doorstop


Planning on making both these skirts


Handkerchief-hem skirt in progress. Kind of.

One more gadget, have reached overflow!

Popped down to a small village near Milton Keynes today to pick up a 4 shaft loom, courtesy of the Loom Exchange. I've been stalking this website for some time, but all the looms were too far away to go pick up in a day, and these babies are big! Certainly glad we didn't take the Ka to go pick it up. The owner was also an engineer so we had an interesting discussion over proper coffee (which made up for the hasty breakfast I'd slung together).

Bought two lengths of material on the market, to make two summer skirts. Didn't read the pattern correctly and didn't cut enough pieces out - I wondered why I couldn't make the notches match up on the frill. Duh! Ripped some small holes trying to get the pieces apart, might have to start again, hoping there's enough material left!

Knitted in public in Coventry on Saturday, and apart from the Cog (not a knitter!) nobody joined me! Sulk! Oh well, I "did my bit".

Friday I went with a friend to the Lace Guild's museum, we got to see lots of lovely examples of torchon lace. Can't post pictures here for copyright reasons. Popped to the Red Cone Glass factory too, but it was empty because they were gearing up for a big open day. Bought a nice heart-shaped paperweight.

Row 80 of second sleeve (cast on on Friday). I think I might be speeding up! Determined to finish a few things before I go careering off onto new pastures. She sez!

Photos of loom etc tomorrow, it's too late to start unloading cameras...


Current mood: happy

Lace bookmark

Lace bookmark
Originally uploaded by steel breeze

My first bookmark. IE upgraded itself and broke Paint Shop Pro, so had to edit this online. Bookmark has little sideways woven diamonds.

It's addictive!

FO: Ugh! and lace

I finally finished the awful, awful green and navy long cardigan for the Cog last night. Everything that could have gone wrong with it, did. It was what he asked for, but it's horrible. I've made him promise to never wear it outside the house. I'm not even going to photograph it, I hate it that much! Even the Cog's not keen now he's seen it.

Have started the back of a navy lambswool sweater for him. This is mark II, and his last one. He shrinks it. he lives with it. Or I start buying him superwash.

Have done a bit more work on my lace bookmark, it's really quite addictive. Need to run up a cover cloth and dig out some elastic - using a teatowel currently but it's a bit thick and rough.

Interesting links from Rav day

Fabulous knitted jewellery

Gorgeous buttons

Crash Course in Machine Knitting

New leaflet (written especially for the UK Ravelry Day workshop)

A Crash Course in Machine Knitting (PDF, 244kb)

A six page leaflet covering two cast ons (one open, one closed), shaping, casting off, and information and resources for further study. Suitable for owners of Japanese knitting machines eg Brother/Knitmaster/Toyota/Silver/Singer.

Price £1 GBP. Will be emailed on receipt of message from Paypal.

Uk Ravelry Day, June 6th, 2009

I got up bright and early, well, early anyway, and was glad I'd got help to load up the car the night before. Two knitting machines, one ribber, one mannekin, one pinboard, two machine tables, a large bag of machine-knitted garments and some handouts later I was installed in a small corner of the Coventry Central Methodist Hall and teaching students. They came mostly two-at-a-time and I have to say, my last student, B, a bloke, was faster than all the women! :)

British weather being true to form, it had started raining the night before, when I made a quick jaunt around town putting up signposts, and I finally made it to the Ibis for a lemonade and a drying-off. It was still raining when I ventured out to the market stalls around 2pm, and the red mist descended, and I fell for Knit Picks Harmony needles, DPNs and crochet hooks, and some sock blockers. Oh, and a gorgeous skein of multi-coloured handspun from Krafty Koala, and some scarlet sock yarn from Easyknits:



More photos of the event here

The venue worked out really well, and the toilets coped (just!). The cafe was selling some marvellous toffee cake. Well, I just had to try some, didn't I?! :)

Got back home, unloaded car into hallway, grabbed some home-made gazpacho soup, got straight out again and met up with Celticmemory and Sandykins in Coventry - supped a pint of Nutcracker at Whitefriar's, and returned to Browns. Went home and had toffee ice-cream!

I'll be selling my "Crash Course in Machine Knitting", my 6 page guide to single-bed Japanese machines, on the sidebar, £1 sterling for the download linky. Look out for it!


Current mood: cold

A sewing book

Picked this up at the weekend (Waterstones are having a Buy 3 get cheapest free thing):



Link here

Some really nice projects in here, plus a colour-coded paper pattern. Might have to photocopy that before I take the scissors to it, though! I fancy making a couple of the dresses in here....

Current mood: loved

Lace and cables

I'm still alive, never fear!

I've made about three inches of a braid in Bobbin lace class - it has a kelly green border. I got the hang of the pattern this week, and really got into it, despite a few mistakes. I hope the thread and bobbins I ordered turn up before next Monday, I want to get cracking! Next week I get to make a bookmark, so I want time to wind the bobbins beforehand, because that is time-consuming.

Lace-making is addictive, it must be said. I enjoyed making the pattern appear and following the lines. Looks like the course may transfer to a different school next "year" (September) - if I'm still hooked I shall be there!

On the knitting front, I've now made the back and both fronts of the DB patchwork cabled aran, using the yarn from the original back and half front in the larger size. Shows you how much bigger it was! Now knitting a sleeve with virgin cotton and thinking about the various ways of increasing invisibly inside moss stitch.

The weather's been fantastic lately and it's no fun being stuck indoors, even WITH air-con. Oh well - I have a day off booked next week, to go to a lace musuem with a friend.