Satisfaction

There's so much satisfaction in finishing a project, especially if you have procrastinated for about 6 weeks over the seaming!!! Today I could have carried on knitting a pair of socks I started yesterday but no, I took advantage of the bright daylight and my dining room table to sew up my Shona jumper which I have renamed Cuddly-Wuddly. I don't have photos yet because it took me all day to seam and after three attempts to sew on the collar I finally googled "slip stitich seam" and found out it involves a crochet hook. My previous attempts were all mattress stitch of which I mistakenly thought "it'll be fine". It wasn't.

The jumper was from Yarn Forward magazine issue 18, and despite my sabotage attempt, by starting to knit one size and then accidentally switching to the next size up, it is a blooming good fit.

Last night may have been the last time the knitting group meets at its usual venue. Sadly Borders UK has gone into administration and all 45 stores are under threat. So it is time for us to start looking for another venue in the Chester/Ellesmere Port area that stays open until at least 9pm. We have considered a pub but they don't tend to have bright lighting, essential for knitting especially if you have a disaster and have to rip back or tink back. So the hunt is on.

Foodies

So last Saturday we went to the Chester Food & Drink Festival. It didn't seem like there were as many exhibitors this year but it was spread out more and easier to see everything.
We bought a big mixed tub of olives from this stall,

and various other things like ciabatta, cheeses, smoked garlic bulbs, and some rudely named beers for our friend's birthday. We have also signed up to have an organic veggie box delivered. We did this last year with a different company but we kept getting broccoli which I love but my tummy doesn't, and they weren't very good at substituting it, so we cancelled it. The company we chose this time, BoxFresh, said all the right things so we'll see what turns up on Friday.

Of course, soon we won't be needing to buy mushrooms, once these little fellas grow a bit more. They weren't doing too well but it turned out they were too dry. When I gave them a big drink they suddenly starting coming on better. Still only about 3mm across on the biggest one though.

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We had quite a busy weekend all in all. It started last Thursday night when we went out to Tilston to a friend's 50th birthday at the Carden Arms pub.

Then after the food fest we went to our neighbours for a meal on Saturday evening. Paul has a birthday 9 days before Colin so it was a double birthday meal really. Afterwards we watched Quantum of Solace on DVD. It was a good action film, but as Becca said last night, it's not cheesy Bond anymore! I don't think we did much on Sunday, then Eastham park on Monday.

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I did do a bit of knitting, and finished the first of a pair of Monkey socks which have been waiting around for a while. Then last night, eagle eyed Anne at knit group noticed I'd dropped a stitch at the beginning of my toe decreases. so we grabbed it and I'll just sew it in. I remember it happening but thought I'd rescued it at the time, I guess I didn't!

I actually joined a sock yarn club. I knew about the Wild Fire Fibres sock club when it started in January but didn't sign up. Then when I started seeing the yarns people were getting on the ravelry group, I wished I'd joined. As it turned out someone had signed up for 3 months and not renewed so lovely Vikki said I could have that slot for the following 3 months. I think I'm due my first skein later this month. The great thing is, it is not the same colour that everyone gets, there is a theme but my skein may be a different colour mix to someone else. I have had some of her yarns before and they are lovely.

It was really good to see Becca at knit group last night, I haven't seen her since the end of January which is shocking, but she has been mad busy at work trying to keep her job (she works in the head office of one of the big banks). We have arranged to meet up after work next Wednesday and get something to eat in town and have a proper catch-up. It's difficult at knit group because there are lots of other people to chat to. It was good though, because I haven't been for a month because of my ear infection, so there was lots of knitting and "knattering" to be done. Karen has finally succumbed to the lure of the socks and brought along some lovely sock yarns that she had bought. (Must not got to Woolly Workshop's website! Must not, must not!)

The Knitter

There is a new UK knitting magazine out called The Knitter. I didn't know this until Ruth mentioned it at knitting group on Tuesday evening and was passing around a copy. I am reluctant to buy UK knitting magazines such as Simply Knitting and Knitting as they contain nothing I want to knit and their other content is very basic. I do like Yarn Forward though and will continue to buy this now it is available other than by subscription.

The Knitter is not like SK although it is from the same publisher. It is aimed at the more intermediate to advanced knitter and does not contain a section on how to do basic stitches which is a nice change. The patterns are definitely not for beginners and although there was only one pattern that made me think "I want to make that" some of the others were also attractive. I did notice that they weren't all original patterns for the magazine, they had been taken from previously published books or Rowan magazines so if you have an extensive knitting library it is possible that you may already have quite a few of the patterns. There were no "novelty yarns" to be seen and no Alan Dart toys!

Another positive thing about the magazine is the fact that the advertising is quite minimal. The pages are glossy and it is a well put together "coffee table" magazine. The price is a little steep at £5.99 but they do have some subscription offers at the moment where you can get three issues for £5 and save 30% by subscribing by quarterly direct debit.

On my needles I have my Ingenue jumper. I have finished the body and have made a start on the first sleeve. I tried it on when I'd finished the body and it fit just right, so as long as I don't have any disasters with the sleeves I think I am going to be very pleased with my efforts on this jumper. I'm really happy with the yarn too, Alaska from Scandinavian Knitting Design. I may even get some more and make another in a different colour.

New knitty

Wahey, I'm getting my new car tomorrow! Happy Christmas to me!

The last knitting group of the year was on Tuesday evening. It was a smallish turnout, only 8 of us but nice. J and I took some goodies - she brought mince pies and I brought choccies. Needless to say with so few people we took the leftovers home, but we are having a mini meeting at Stash on 18th December so I'll take what's left (ahem, the amount is getting less each day!) to that.

I am working on my 9 to 5 (Dolly Parton) socks at the moment, I have half of the second one to go having just picked up the stitches around the heel flap. This is done from the back on this pair so the stitches show down the edge on the outside of the sock. A photo would be better to show this so I'll do that when they are finished.

The new Knitty is up! I like Amused and Surface without the extra bit. Gwynedd is nice too.

For Becca

Sorry you couldn't make it to knit group last night, here is a summary of events......

I arrived at Borders a little after 7 and went to where our table is usually. As is quite common, even though they know we have a knit group twice a month, there was nothing set up, and "our" table was full of bargain books. I asked at the desk where the knitting group was going to be and was shown a table near the music and DVD section. He even quickly printed off some "reserved for knit group" notices and put them on the table. I sat down and got out my Good Luck Cowl and started knitting. No-one else showed up. At quarter past I was still on my own and decided to give it till 8 o'clock and then make a discreet exit!

Luckily Karen and a non-knitting friend arrived about 7.20 so I was able to go and get a coffee (thanks Karen!) . While I was gone Averil came so there were a total of 4 of us, and that was how it stayed. It was suggested that people weren't there because it was half-term, but what do they do with the kids the other weeks that they come?

So I worked on the cowl, Karen worked on her Ice Queen and Averill was working on a jumper. I showed off my two FOs, the baby cardigan and the mystery socks, and Karen showed us two versions of a hat she'd started in two different colour yarns but the same pattern. The first one was a dark green/teal colour and didn't show up the cabling pattern too well, BUT it was made from Mirasol Miski, and OOOOOHHHHH SOOOOOOFFFFFTTTTTTT. I have two different colours of this yarn in my stash and I felt like running home right there and then and just doing something with it. No idea what, just anything. Wow, it was gorgeous. The second version was a lighter colour and suited the pattern much better but wasn't as soft.

Averil had a shop bought cardigan with her that she wants to copy. She has worked out the stitch pattern but needs to get the gauge and yarn weight right as it has felted a bit since she first had it.

Conversation went from Stash's opening hours to writing novels and journals, how it's a small world becasue I knew someone that Karen's friend knows, karate, the lack of soya milk in Starbucks, New Zealand, plumbers and bathroom conversions and how cold it's been lately.

We had to share the other end of the table with a book group but I never did catch on to what book they were discussing, I was too busy nattering.

I got home just after 9 and that was that. Hope there are more there next time.

The order of the night - socks!

The temptation was too much for me so I ordered some sock yarn from Wild Fire Fibres this morning. I got this apple green colour in merino/bamboo, and this gorgeous purple in merino/tencel. Can't wait to get them and give them a good squidge! More socks!!

It seems that socks are the project to take to Knitters Within Borders nights. Whenever I take anything else I can't concentrate and end up doing a grand total of about 2 rows. But last night I got quite a bit done on my stranded socks and only have 8 rounds to go before decreasing the toes. And they'll be finished at last. I can't believe I have taken nearly 2 months to make a pair of socks when I was boasting last night that I can whip a pair up in about 48 hours if I'm under pressure (ie in Sock Wars!) Socks seemed to be the order of the night last night with at least 4 pairs on the go from various people, including Becca's mum, although she declared that she felt inadequate as a knitter after seeing everyone's projects and kept her knitting well and truly below table level so we couldn't see it!! I was pleased that we had 12 people there last night, it gives me confidence that going for the second night a month was a good decision.

I bought my copy of Interweave Knits Fall 2008 and am quite taken with this waistcoat, and it's in a yarn that is readily available here if I want to use it, Rowan Scottish Tweed DK. I think it would look great over a long sleeve white T-shirt for work. I'll have a think about colours but the brown is actually quite nice.

Wednesday Knit Night

Tonight is the first of our Wednesday night knit groups at Borders. It will be interesting to see who comes along and what the numbers are like. We will be boosted by 2 because Becca is bringing her mum and her boyfriend's mum, neither of whom have been before, so at least there will be four of us!!

I have got stuck on my Cherie Amour at the part where you separate for the armholes. I'm sure if I sit down and concentrate I can work it out, but in the meantime I'm finishing the second of my Show Off Stranded Socks. I'm on the foot now so I can take it with me this evening and not have to concentrate too hard.

I've had a look on etsy recently and am tempted by some of the hand-dyed sock yarns on there. I particularly like some of the colours from Wild Fire Fibres. I may have to make a purchase when I get paid!!
(Edit: Aaargh, someone has nipped in and bought the colour I wanted while I was dithering!!! Sob!)

Tasty cakes

First off, a pic of my socks in progress. The Show Off Stranded Socks. An easy 4 row repeat to remember. I'm using the Socks That Rock mediumweight and they are coming out quite big but they will make good slouchy socks I think.


While we were at Woolfest, Colin bought me a swift (shhh, I don't know about it 'til my birthday) so that he doesn't have to sit with his hands held out wrapped in skeins of yarn while I wind them into balls. He also got me a ball winder stick (technically known as a Nostepinne) which you wind the yarn onto by hand (link = YouTube video) to make a centre pull ball. I decided last week to have a go on a 20mm knitting needle. It takes ages to wind a ball onto it. It'll be fine for left over bits of yarn in shortish lengths but I decided to have a look for a wool winder.

I found this one second hand on ebay and it arrived yesterday.


I couldn't wait to give it a go but as I don't have a swift (nudge, nudge, wink, wink.) I used a couple of balls I'd already wound by hand. And look at them now........

I think the technical name for these is cakes, and the most tasty looking non-edible cakes they are. It was so quick!! My skeins are going to wind so fast. Wheeee.

Last Tuesday evening was Borders Knitters night. We had a total of 21 people there this time, which seems to be about the number we have each month. Another 3 new members turned up. I don't know what we would do if all the people who have ever come all turned up at once, there would be over 30 of us and I think Borders would have a fit! As it is, we are going to be going fortnightly probably as of August.

In my last post I mentioned some yarn that I couldn't show. That was because I got this for Becca and she hadn't seen it yet.



I wasn't happy that the yarns I picked for her at Woolfest were sufficiently turquoise, which was what she had asked me to get, so I got these from Scandinavian Knitting Design. 2 balls of Alpaca and 1 150g ball of Kauni Effect. She did take one of the sock yarns I got and the bluey skein of Manos Silk Blend from Woolfest too.

Poor Becca is a bit poorly at the mo and is off work and very bored, so I popped over to see her on Monday. We have decided to have a knitalong for a Booga Bag, using the Kauni Effect. This is my colour

This is one of those patterns that EVERYONE on ravelry has made, so I succumbed in the end. We knitted some swatches to see how they would felt and bunged them into Becca's washing machine at 40 degrees. Not a lot happened so she put hers back in at 60. After doing this 3 more times she eventually got a decent felted fabric. I went home and put mine in again at 60 and it felted straight away. So we have concluded that her newer machine is far too gentle and we need mine because it has a much more vigorous agitation action. When the bags are done we will chuck them in my machine at 60.

Colin is getting a new car, a Mazda 3. I quite like the Mazda 2 for myself but I'll wait a few more months I think. He is picking it up tomorrow and then later on we are going to the National Exhibition of Wildlife Art preview evening. We got invited because we bought some pictures last year. We will have to restrain ourselves I think!

Serendipity

Isn't it funny how life works? You go for 39 years of your life not knowing of the existence of someone else who you end up meeting and really liking. And all from a quirk of fate.

That's what happened when I started the knitting group. It was a quirk of fate which got me in touch with J through ravelry and we both said wouldn't it be great to have a knitting group at Borders in Cheshire Oaks. And it was a quirk of fate that brought the various knitters there on the first night. And that there was someone there who wanted to learn how to knit socks, and asked if I could show them.

That person was Becca. And we hit it off straight away. Enough that we met up independently of the group a couple of weeks later, and have done so a few times since. I think we have become quite good friends and to think we didn't know that the other existed 4 months ago!

Anyway, what I'm getting on to is this.....


Lovely yummy squishy hand dyed BFL DK that Becca got for me in Hay on Wye. There is about 200yds there, which hopefully will make one of these. Isn't she sweet?

I finished Colin's jumper yesterday. Well sort of. It is now lying on the arm of the couch in four pieces, taunting me with it's need to be sewn together. Any volunteers out there?

I'm probably going to rip out the Nutkin sock, eek. I knitted a round twice 10 rounds back which has caused a hole and if I rip back I don't think I'll be able to pick up the stitches. I could do it one stitch at a time but that is a total of 640 stitches one by one! I'm not totally happy with the yarn anyway so I may just go for it and then start over with the Socks That Rock. Now that I have wound it into a ball it looks an even more yummy colour.

In a lull

I am in a lull - is that the right word for it? Nothing much is happening, the knitting is fairly dull and uninspiring and all that there is on telly is football!!

But tonight is knitting group, yay! Although, despite sending emails to all 20-plus members asking for any feedback they may have on how the group is going, I received a total of 0 replies. Unless you count the two people who were just letting me know that they couldn't make it to the group this month. Never mind, they are all obviously enjoying the group so much and don't think any changes are necessary. That can't be a bad thing can it?

I get to see an old friend on Friday. Sarah and I met at primary school in Southampton and despite her moving to the Isle of Wight when we were about 6 we have stayed in touch all these years. The last time I saw her was 9 years ago at her wedding but on Friday I am going over to see her. She now has 4 children!! My mum has stayed in touch with her mum too so we are having a girls' day out together! I am hoping to do a bit of famous person spotting on the ferry/hydrofoil as it is also the Isle of Wight Festival this weekend, and all those "stars" have to get there somehow don't they? Maybe I'll spot Sting doing a bit of yoga on the open deck!

Today I died!

These little beauties went off to Arkansas, USA on Monday lunchtime. They couldn't have gone any sooner because of the weekend post and that I had to spend some time with the family. No it was good actually, they didn't mind me knitting and I did quite a bit while they went out to the pub, (I don't drink so I don't tend to get much out of going to the pub!) or were sleeping in in the mornings.


Unfortunately the doorbell went this morning and I was given a package containing these

from Lauri in Arizona. I love the colours. She has done the increases differently to mine, producing a lacy stitch, but they are absolutely fine. I'm certainly not going to complain like some of the pains in the arse on the discussion boards. God, they take it all so seriously, but then again I would have been disappointed if I had got a pair of crappy socks. I was very lucky with my assassin, she knew what she was doing. So that's me out of the game for this time around, roll on SW4!! My target should "die" tomorrow so maybe Lauri will get to finish off another pair before she meets her demise.

On Monday lunchtime we went out to the Red Lion in Dodleston for a pub lunch. The weather was gorgeous and we sat outside. This is me with Colin and his dad.


Colin & Sean


And me & Fiona (Colin's sister)


So they flew back to Ireland yesterday afternoon, and I have been into the office this morning to make sense of the post that has come in over the last week. Theoretically we are both off for the whole week but Colin had a meeting so I thought I might as well go in too. We are off tomorrow though.

Then on Saturday morning my parents will arrive bright and early and the entertaining starts all over again!!

Tuesday evening I went out to knitting group at Borders. We had another 4 new people this time and some who didn't come from last time. So we had 18 again. As usual I was last to leave!! I found out that Stash is moving to new premises and that the shop is going to be 3 times the size. The one they have now is tiny so there will be much more display space. Unfortunately they are not having a sale before they move, so no bargains to be had! There are some online offers though.

Borders knitters

Well here we are, the motley crew of Borders knitting group!
These two were taken from opposite ends of the table


These are 3 new members who came last night, I think they were (l-r) Gaele, Kerry and Clare - (and that is my 2nd Clapotis taking shape in the foreground)


and this is (l-r) Becca, Karen, & Anne (who works at the LYS).


I did notice a member of Borders' staff taking a photo too so I'm not sure if that is going to end up on their website.

So we had a total of 18 participants last night. Some missing faces from the first meeting but the new people more than made up the shortfall (we had 13 at the first meeting). Chris came down and so did Mel who I hadn't met before but killed in Sock Wars in the autumn. We felt like we'd known each other for ages from reading each others blogs and emails. We are both signed up again so I hope we don't get each other as targets again this time.

We had to ask for a second table and more chairs to accommodate everyone! We were told that we wouldn't be able to have more than 20 so we will have to work out how to limit the numbers a bit. It goes to show there was a demand for a knitting group in the Chester area though.

Repairs and a book review

I can't believe it is already only a few days until the Borders Knitting group meeting. It is next Tuesday. I have been in to the LYS and they have had more interest so who knows how many people will come this month. I have sent reminders to last month's attendees.

My Drops 88-4 is almost finished. I have to sew seams and do the neckband. I could probably finish it by Tuesday if I put my mind to it at the weekend. I'm just dreading picking up a hundred and something stitches around the neck and making it look neat, as the fabric is quite loose and holey. I am still working on the Zoknis, no progress on those lately, and I also want to cast on an Umbilical Cord Hat from the Stitch& Bitch book for a friend's baby due in May. There's a lovely one here. That may be my Borders project for Tuesday as it's small and portable. I'm going to use some Twilley's organic cotton.

So my car got fixed under warranty. The gearstick is still a bit stiff though so I don't know what they did. You just have to trust that they did something and didn't just leave it sitting in the corner of the garage for two days.

The Sky+ box had to be replaced in the end too so I lost 2 episodes of Supernatural, 2 of ER and the Boosh documentary that were saved on the hard disk!! Drat!!

And now especially for Nina - a review of The Keep. The story is about Danny who as a kid leaves his cousin Howard in a cave, and he isn't found for a few days. Years later Howard is renovating a castle in Eastern Europe and pays for Danny to come over to help. The castle is all spooky and you are expecting a lot of supernatural goings on. Then there is the part where Danny and Howard end up in some dark tunnels, and relive the experience from when they were kids. In the meantime there is another story going on which is the narrator of Danny's story who is a prison inmate called Ray who fancies his writing teacher. The book had a lot of potential which it didn't live up to. I didn't get the point of the narrator part of the book. And the reliving of the tunnel/cave thing was over and done with in a few pages. Then at the end you get at least 30 pages of the story of the writing teacher which I thought was completely unnecessary. If there had just been the castle story it could have been expanded and made much better, there were too many unfinished threads. The book has now gone off to a Bookmoocher in the USA.

Looks like we are going to see the Mighty Boosh live tour twice this year. Colin's nephew has two spare tickets for Dublin on 17th September which now have our names on them. Woohoo, that's a whole two and a half months before we see them in Manchester.

Lighting up time.

Here is the infamous earlight.

And here it is in action with the room light on. You can see the amount of light it casts quite well here.

And here you can see it with the room lights off. Sorry it is blurred, the camera didn't like the dark without the flash, but with the flash on it defeated the object! I reckon you could probably knit in the cinema as long as you didn't have someone sat right next to you.

I finally finished my first Zokni sock. As you can see I opted for a heel flap in the end, I'm still not happy picking up wraps on a short row heel.

I did try to teach a short row heel last night though. I met up with Becca from the knitting group. It was funny because we were sitting in Starbucks in Borders knitting away and a member of staff tried to recruit us for the knitting group so we had to explain that we had been there last week and that I was actually one of the organisers. He apologised for not recognising us and was pleased we were with the group.

Anyway, Becca made great inroads into her boyfriend's sock, so I think she will go great guns on it now and hopefully it will be well on it's way by the next meeting. She brought me a really sweet "birthday card book" as a thankyou for the lesson, which had lots of cute puppies on it. You can put cards in it ready for when you need them. Great idea. I love the Westie in the woolly knitted hat, maybe The Gorgeous One would like one!!

Talking of whom, we are still really struggling with him. We are trying to housetrain him using a crate, so he goes in it for a while and then he gets taken out to the garden to do his business and if he goes he gets to play in the house for a while. If he doesn't go, he has to go back in the crate and then try again in about 20 minutes. This had been going on for 3 and a half days now and he still doesn't seem to twig that he should go outside if he wants to have some play. Ulgh, it is really hard work. If he is out of the crate too long he still pees on the paper pad in the living room. But it just seems cruel to keep him locked away, and he cries a lot and tugs at the old heartstrings. We are still umming and ahhing over whether he is going to be a permanent member of our household. It may have been a bit too soon after losing Podge, because we don't seem to have a strong bond with him even after nearly 3 months. When he does come out to play he is still very willful and naughty and doesn't respond to "NO!!". We'll give it a bit longer I guess.

Yikes, I broke my "no book buying" resolution last night. I got The Keep by Jennifer Egan and The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. We have both been looking at The Book Thief for a while and hadn't gotten around to buying it so I took advantage of the Buy One Get One Half Price offer at Borders. Did I mention Bookmooch.com? It's a great way to get around the no buying books rule. I've had 3 books from there and they've cost me nothing!!

Knitters within Borders!

I have just had a comment on my last post from Nina asking how the knitting group went on Tuesday - so I'd better tell you hadn't I?

Well I knew there would definitely be 3 of us, myself, Janet (the other organiser) and a lady from ravelry called Mandy. The start time was 6.30pm so I got there early at about 6.15pm. I wandered down to where the table was set out with about ten chairs and notices saying "reserved for knitting group". There was no-one there at this point so I went over to the magazines and had a look at the new Interweave Knits issue. At 6.25 I wandered back again and there was still no-one there but there was a girl looking at the knitting books and she had a bag with her that could have contained some knitting. I went to Starbucks and got a coffee and took it back to the table.

I'd just sat down when Janet arrived and then it happened..........the knitters came out of the woodwork!! They must have all been lurking behind the fixtures in the shop waiting for someone to sit down first. The girl I'd seen (Becca) came over and then another 10 knitters making a total of 13 of us. There were even 3 generations of one family. A member of staff came and said that she had hoped to come but that she was working but would join us next month.

There was a range of ages, the average probably being mid-40s, the oldest probably 80 and the youngest about 10. Everyone was making something different, and there were a range of yarns too. We had a couple of beginners and some very experienced so a great range of knitters really. I gave Becca a sort of lesson in casting on for socks and also helped her start a swatch for a lacy top she wants to knit. I need to get a simple sock pattern to her because the one she had assumed you had some knowledge of sock knitting. I think the basic Opal sock pattern would be best for her to start on.

I took my Zokni socks to work on but ended up only doing 5 rounds in 2 hours because of the chatting! I am really pleased at how it went though, and am looking forward to next month. For anyone interested, it is on Tuesday 8th April @ 6.30pm. I wonder how many there will be next month. I'll see if anyone minds me taking a photo so you can see all our happy, smiling, knitting faces!