Having a KiP

I'm the chubby one.....

Vicki and I decided to meet up to Knit in Public, as one Guild meeting a month just wasn't enough of a fix! Paul suggested the Botanic Gardens, and we spent the afternoon there on Saturday. Paul pushed me along to the little area in front of the hothouses, and we knitted while he took photos. (All the photos here are copyright to him.)

The place is amazing, much bigger than when I used to go there in my student days. And it's full of beautiful flowers, like these next to us:

Unfortunately the hothouses aren't very wheelchair-friendly, but Paul took loads of photos of the flowers, cacti, butterflies, and fish:

There are loads of beautiful trees, and lovely views:

Not forgetting the sculptures. I loved the Millennium Bug:

There's actually a baby one next to it, too!

It took me till now to start to recover, but boy, was it worth it! We had a brilliant time, and it was so wonderful to be out in the fresh air. Here's to the next time!

On your mark(er)s

I've just discovered how useful stitch markers can be. Yes, I know it's late in my knitting career, and yes, I did indeed buy four sets of the little sparklers last week. Why did you buy them if you don't use stitch markers? I hear you cry. Well, they were shiny......

To be strictly accurate, I have used stitch markers before. Those little plastic paper-clip efforts. Usually for holding the dropped stitch I've just noticed until I get back to it on the next row. However, it was only when I bought the sparkly type that I actually used them to - well, to mark stitches. Not just dropped ones.

I had to do a section of decreases across the width of a capelet in Sirdar Foxy, a very eyelashy eyelash yarn, and if I hadn't marked all the decrease points with markers, I would have gone screaming from the room. So today, when I had run out of commissions (I'm waiting on another consignment of yarn), I began Fiona Morris' beautiful cable-and-eyelet-lace collared tunic from the latest issue of 'Knitting'. It's made with 4-ply anti-tickle merino, and is going to be gorgeous.

Anyway, as it has several different components across the pattern section, and because I am feeling particularly foggy and muzzy at present, I decided to use the aforementioned sparklies to mark each section off as I went along the row. Success! No unpicking, no hassle, no desperate counting and recounting to check I haven't missed out vast chunks or done one bit twice. I am sold on markers.

And they're very shiny.

Fanfare for the Common Knitter

I have a little bit of News.

I've been keeping it under my stash for a while, for fear of jinxing things, but I feel I can now reveal that.....ta-dah!

I have sold five designs to UK 'Knitting' magazine.

I am so excited :) Panicky and feeling sick, but excited nevertheless :)

I can't begin to explain how much this has boosted my confidence. Having to spend so much time in bed, only knitting a few stitches at a time some days, has actually brought me something that I can be proud of!

Finally I have something that puts me on a par with healthy people, 'normal' people, those who don't have to understand the limitations of a chronic illness because they, and their circle of acquaintance, don't suffer from one. I wish them well, and hope it stays that way - but I'm still excited that, in this one area, I am 'normal' too!

Anyway, details - I have sold the beanie hat; the furry snood/hood-thing that I was working on at Pins and Needles a few entries back; a wrap, in Sirdar Bigga; a shawl/poncho thingy; and a capelet. I tell you, this is heaven - being paid to design and make stuff, with free materials, is just the sweetest deal ever.

Talking of the caplelet, I needed to find a pretty clasp for it. After much hunting around, I found JosyRose. No affiliation and all that, but I tell you, the place is Embellishment Heaven. Don't go and look if you're overdrawn......

Well, I'd better get back to my designs, she said smugly. Actually, what I'm getting back to is a cup of tea and lights out, but that doesn't sound so swanky ;)

Dum de dum de dum de dum......

Did I enjoy The Wedding yesterday? Of course! I was riveted :)

No, not Charles and Camilla's. Nothing on earth would have persuaded me to watch that. I refer to my latest eBay purchase, a Vintage Archers cassette of Shula and Mark's wedding.

Yes, constant reader, I admit it. I am a rabid fan of 'The Archers', the longest-running soap in the world (first heard in 1950), broadcast six days a week on BBC Radio 4. The title of this entry, in case you didn't realise or recognise it, is a representation of Barwick Green, the sig tune. Billy Connolly once suggested it as a new national anthem :)

Listening to audio books (or the radio) is a great accompaniment to knitting, because you don't have to watch anything. It still hasn't helped with the complex Aran sweater I was making from Knitter's magazine, which is now a ball of yarn again. I can't do Aran sweaters without a chart, and the charts for this one were awful. Instead (and as, coincidentally, I happen to have the right yarn in my stash), I am about to start on Fiona Morris' lovely green Aran in this month's 'Knitting' magazine.

Just to make sure I keep my place on the pattern, I have gone somewhat crazy and ordered some of the most gorgeous stitch markers I have ever coveted, from Angelyarns. Surf and drool :)

By the way, 'Constantine' was thought-provoking, with excellent costumes and an unusual story. It just wore me out for over a week.... I'm still not entirely with it now, which is why this entry has been slightly disjointed.

Normal service will be resumed soon. Probably :)

Hissy Fit

OK, so I didn't come back the next day....

Anyhoo, here is the finished snake - Hissy Fit. You might remember (or not!) that this is an entry for the annual Knitting and Crochet Guild competition. Each year we raise money for a different part of the bulding at Lee Mills, which houses our antique textiles collection. The theme this year is 'Weatherproofing the Roof'. We're being asked to make an item of headgear - the more impractical, the better!

The winners are announced at the AGM in May. All the entries will then be exhibited and (we hope) sold on the Guild stands at shows like Harrogate and Alexandra Palace.

The colours are a little brighter on the real item - it's a variegated pastel cotton held together with a metallic thread.

It's actually held onto the head with pins, but only because the polystyrene is slippery - real people can use hairgrips! There's a pipecleaner in the head, so that it can be posed.

The other oddity I've designed and made recently is my house:

My local branch of the Knitting and Crochet Guild is putting up a display in the library where we meet, and then transferring it to the Textile Gallery of Sunderland Art Gallery, where we Knit In Public once a month. We decided to create a row of houses and gardens, with a wood next to it, and some 3D figures standing in front of it.

The house is A4 sized, with cobweb lace curtains and fanlight, flower buttons in the windowboxes, and a DMC button of two cats on the doorstep! It's all knitted except for the crocheted drainpipe. It was such good fun to design and make :)

I may be absent for another few days now - I'm going to the cinema tomorrow, for the first time in about four years. I love the cinema, and I've really missed it. Richard, Paul and I are going to see 'Constantine', the new Keanu Reeves thing. I'll post a review soon!

It's photo time!

Yes, yes, faithful reader, I am still here. The last two weeks have been fairly rough, so I've been knitting and answering the odd e-mail, and not much else. I'll spread my report of the interesting bits over the next few days, so that I don't overwhelm you with too much excitement at once :)

First and foremost: it's photo time! Yes, Linda's Surprise Top has now been delivered and raved over, so I am at last at liberty to show you what it is. It's...


a Sailor Top! Linda is a big fan of Sailor (remember 'Girls, Girls, Girls'? 'Glass of Champagne'? No? Suit yourself... Whaddya mean, you're too young??), and usually wears a navy-and-white T-shirt to their gigs, together with a rather jaunty sailor hat. I thought she might like a 'real' sailor top, too. (Actually, in this picture it hasn't been washed or pressed, so it looked better than this afterwards!)

I've got photos of the nummy yarn scarf, too:


Obviously this is only one end of it, but it really shows how the colours work together within the Feather-and-Fan pattern.

This is an extreme close-up that really demonstrates how glowing the colours are. I have never worked with wool like this before.


More tomorrow - the snake and perhaps the house...

Sssscaled to Fit

I really need a digital camera! I haven't bothered as Paul and Richard are such experts with theirs; but it would be really handy for times like this, when I have a fabulous FO and no one around to photograph it......

Anyway, as you will eventually see, I have finished my entry to this year's Knitting and Crochet Guild fundraising competition. As this year's profit is going towards fixing the roof at Lee Mills, where we house the Collection, it's called Weatherproofing the Roof. The spec is 'anything you can wear on your head - not necessarily a hat!'.

So I made a snake.

It looks good, too - I'm really proud of it! I used 4mm dpns, 6 sts per row, and a strand each of multicoloured crochet cotton and silver thread, and made a 130cm I-cord. I sewed up the tail end into a ball shape to give a bit of weight to that end, then sewed the head end into a point. I'd put a pipe cleaner into the head end, to allow it to be posed, and sewed on two iridescent beads as eyes.

The problem arose when I tried to display it on my polystyrene wig block. It is too smooth to 'grab' the yarn, so I've had to pin the snake in place round the neck, round the head and up to the crown where the snake head rears up. I hope people with hair will be able to use bobby pins instead!

Richard suggested I make one blue and one pink, and label them Hissss and Hers.....

Talking of jokes (well, almost!), I visted Mary Anne's blog after she left a comment, and found a great link to a page full of knitting humour. View it here - it's a super selection!

Clawing my way back

Yes, faithful readers, I am still here - I had to take a few days offline to rest up before the Pins 'n' Needles show, and then a few days afterwards recovering. But it was worth it!!

I was a little disappointed by the small number of yarn stalls, and I could have had a major sulk that the Spinners, Dyers and Weavers group wasn't selling any of their wool - the colours were *gorgeous*, and the spinning and plying were beautiful.

However, I still ended up with two large balls of very fine red stuff with coloured speckles in it, a ball of Sirdar Funky Fur Magic, two balls of Sirdar Dune in white, two balls of Sirdar Foxy in brown (Paul suggested putting two googly eyes on them and selling them as guinea pigs...), a ball of Rowan Biggy in dusky pink, and some small flower-shaped buttons to go into the window-boxes of the house I have to knit. More of that later...

I spent the afternoon on the Knitting and Crochet Guild stall, which was absolutely inundated with customers. I was working on a snood, using Colinette Silkychic on circular needles , and I got so many lovely comments about it that I could have got quite big-headed! The best comment, though, was from a lady and her friend who described my continental style of knitting as 'knitting backside forrard'. I thought that was absolutely brilliant!

I have finally sent off Linda's top, so I hope to be able to post the photos of it very soon. I have been producing items like there's no tomorrow ever since. I think it's a reaction to finishing a large item - I want to whizz through several small items just for the gratification of having something finished :)

In the past week I haven't been able to do much, but I have been able to do garter stitch. I have finished:

• my snood (it's a long tube which put on over your head. It keeps your neck warm, but if you pull up the back edge over your head, it also forms a kind of hood. It's a rotten description, but the best I can manage!);
• another neck pillow for Paul's mother (she is too short for the headrest in the car!); and
• another of the beanies I designed for Paul.

I am hoping to submit the beanie to one of the knitting magazines, along with a couple of other patterns. I did get rejected by 'Big Girls' Knits', but I am undaunted!

Oh, yes - the house. I nearly forgot. Our local branch of the K&CG is mounting a display in the library where we meet, and then transferring it to the textiles section of the Art Gallery, where we hold our Knit-Ins. Diane, who leads our group, suggested a 'Homes and Gardens' theme. She has bravely offered to do all the backgrounds, while each of us takes on a house, garden, or group of people.

I have opted for a house (number 2), which I have finished designing but have not yet started to knit. It's only a two-dimensional piece, and it's A4-sized , so it shouldn't take very long. I wanted flower-filled window-boxes to make it look cheerful, which is why I bought the buttons mentioned above - it's much less fuss than trying to knit very small flowers!

I'll also be able to use my new-found skill of cobweb lace (thanks to Mandy!) in making little net curtains for the windows. As usual, photos will follow. I really must buy myself a digital camera...

Finally a quick hello to a new reader. I am always delighted to find comments from people other than my immediate friends, and even more delighted to find myself on somebody else's list of favourite blogs - so hello to the Scarf Lady! Hers is a very new blog, but do pop across and have a look at it.

There's nothing like a good FO......

.....except two good FOs.

Yes, gentle reader, Linda's Christmas Top is finished!!!!

It looks great. I know I should be modest, but I can't. It's the first full-size garment I've ever designed from scratch, and it works beautifully. All the bits fit together! It's like magic :) I just need to boast about it tomorrow at the Knitting and Crochet Guild meeting, and then it can go into the post. It's only 8 weeks late!!

Hopefully I can pin Paul down (ooer, missus...) with his digital camera, and then I can reveal it to the world. Well, the select group of readers of my humble blog, anyway :)

The second FO is my feather-and-fan scarf made with my nummy yarn. It too looks gorgeous, more because of the yarn than my skill at knitting it up :) It is amazingly warm and snuggly. Photos follow of that, soon, too.

I've had another kind of FO this week, too. I went for my regular check-up with the adorable Dr Cook, my kind and considerate asthma/COPD doctor, and - he discharged me! Not because I'm cured, unfortunately, but because I am now on an even keel with my chest problems and can stop seeing him, unless and until I get the next attack.

At least he phrased the discharge better than Dr Earnshaw, my ME doctor, did. I knew what he meant, but 'I can't do anything more for you' sounded almost terminal!!

No Valentine cards on Monday (sniff!), but I did get something better - a parcel of lace-weight yarn from Mandy from the local K&C Guild. She sent a ball each of cream, peach, deep pink, blue and pale yellow. They are lovely things, but scary - so fine, it's like knitting with sewing thread! I have started a little feather-and-fan swatch with the pink, on 2.5mm needles, but I have to work on it first thing on a morning, when I can concentrate.....

Even so, it's addictive. Watch this space :)

Getting there

I am on to the home stretch with Linda's top. Both sleeves are now finished, and the whole thing is put together, mostly with crochet. I'm 9 rows into the collar now, and worrying that it's too wide :)

I discovered a lovely lacy-looking edging that attaches pieces together, and makes stocking stitch edges lie flat, too! I work a row of single crochet joining the two pieces, and then follow that with a row of crab stitch. It's much easier to use the ordinary single crochet as the joining stitch, because it's more elastic, and then the holes of the single crochet provide perfect spacing for the crab stitch. If you're new to either of these stitches, then I recommend the Denise Stitches guide here.

I've also started the feather and fan scarf that Mandy suggested for the nummy yarn, and it is looking beautiful! Finally, it's found a form it likes... Pictures follow soon!