Sibling rivalry rules in our household!

Purple wristwarmers complete, and now working on a pair in very dark green Jaeger Merino DK for James, as I don't have any black at all in the stash ... he obviously decided it was much more sensible to agree with his mother on this occasion than to have to wait for several days before I can get to a wool shop! Especially since Holly decided that she did want a pair after all ...

Another project finished, and a new one halfway done

Finished Emily's purple curly whirly scarf last night - here's a picture of part of it wrapped around Emily. It's enormously long, about 8 feet, so it takes several wraps around her neck! for more pictures, see the Curly Whirly Scarf blog, or my Flickr gallery.

She has also been nagging all week about needing gloves - fighting back the temptation to enquire where all her other pairs have disappeared (buried somewhere in the bomb-site that is laughingly referred to as her bedroom, no doubt), I refused to knit a pair of gloves - even on 2 needles, I find them rather fiddly to do - but compromised on allowing her a pair of wristwarmers in some spare purple yarn. One is complete, and the other will be finished by tomorrow (Just say no! to Single Wristwarmer Syndrome), and Emily says they make her feel like a poor victorian writer, "like that man in Bleak House, Mummy".


I didn't bother with a pattern for these as they're pretty straightforward to do, but I did manage a couple of nice touches on them that I'm quite pleased with - in Elizabeth Zimmerman's "Knitters Almanac", which I was looking through for something else entirely (often the way these things happen), I found a simpler way of twisting right over 2 stitches, which makes really nice neat little cables, so I used these for the wrist part, and then switched back to ordinary 2x2 rib over the hand and thumb parts.

Holly is not bothered at the moment about having any scarves or wristwarmers - actually this is fine by me! she's used up all her credit this week by demanding (at the last minute of course) a skirt to be made out of her old jeans (what goes around comes around! - I can remember doing these for me as a teenager) to wear to the school disco on Friday evening. Fortunately this is a relatively quick job, but getting my sewing machine out is not - if you look at the bookshelves behind me, my sewing machine usually has to do double duty as a shelf to stack books on, so to get it out you have to move all the books. Still, one happy daughter, even if irritated parents ... hooray!

James has just surprised me by a) asking for a pair of wristwarmers, "just like Emily's, but black" and b) demonstrating the really good bit about ribbing which is that wristwarmers for a 10 year old stretch to fit a 16 year old. In fact I will probably knit them slightly larger, but it will only have to be a few stitches extra in width.

On the hat front, I've made a small posting to the Hat blog, but until I can dig out a few previous makes, no new pictures ...

When is a UFO not a UFO ...?

Bit of a quiet week so far, following a bit too much knit-brain activity last week ...

The pink top is languishing at the moment, cos I wasn't really geared up to knit it in the first place - I mean it was on my to-do list, but not just yet. I think it was having knitted too much pink that was doing it, so I've put it aside for a week or two till I get my enthusiasm back ... (but this is not the UFO in the title, read on!)

So instead, have nearly finished a curly whirly scarf, but knitting this time, which I find a bit quicker, and because I'm being virtuous, this one is all stash-busting (to whit, one ball of rowan chenille in black, one ball of plum coloured Jaeger merino, some of that sparkly rowan stuff that's like goldfingering in damson - can't remember it's name off-hand - then a ball of something that has been in the stash for about 20 years (purple acrylic/wool blend with a thin thread of lurex running through it - bought it in a sale here in UK, but it's German in origin, and finally, some of a cone of thread with little viscose and lurex tufts in green and purple shades, which I found on eBay a couple of months back. At least it's not pink anyway! Just about half-way through the cast-off row now, which I am making "lettuce leafy", by upping 1 stitch between each actual stitch, just before casting it off.

In between, I'm reading 'Bleak House' but only a few chapters at a time, as near as I can to the original serialisation scheme when Dickens first published it in his magazine. This way of doing seems to be working well for me, I find, cos apart from anything else, the book is so damn heavy that more than about 4 chapters in any one hit makes my wrists ache abysmally. Should say that I'm enjoying it, and of course the current dramatisation on BBC helps a lot, so I'm not constantly trying to remember who all the thousands of characters are ...

Work has been fairly dreary, as all I'm doing this week is processing stuff for our year-end deadline on Friday, though thinking about it, I was doing much the same thing last week, just a different deadline that's all.

And so to the UFO of the title - we've recently discovered how to get a lot of our favourite old computer games to play under Windows XP, using a nifty little utility called DOSBox. Most of my favourite games fall under the strategy game heading, and strangely most of them come from one company (Microprose, now sadly taken over by Hasbro), so much of this week, I have been playing UFO (known as X-Com in the States), and having a thoroughly good trip down memory lane shooting sdown UFOs, killing aliens, and generally making a nuisance of myself all over the planet - and the Really Good Bit is that son, who normally reckons he is good at computer games, has apparently confessed to DOH that he is AMAZED at how good Mum is at this game ... life in the old bat yet, apparently!

Pin the tail i-cord on the donkey knitter ...

Looks like being the new craze! - pin a flag on my map in the sidebar ...

How to estimate Yarn requirements

(This goes with the previous posting about the simple jacket design - again it is my copyright, so ask first - OK?)

Estimating Yarn - How-To (as requested by Heather & Nikki)

There are several ways you can do it:

1) Ask the lady in the shop where you buy the yarn - she may well be able to help/advise

or

2) If you can find a pattern for something similar in the yarn you've got, use the yarn requirements quoted in that pattern as a starting point. Say you can find a jumper pattern in your size, but you want a jacket. It's probably a good idea to add on an extra ball or 2 for edgings, collar, pockets etc.

If you can only find a ball of yarn similar in weight to your yarn (ie knits at the same tension), check out the yarn length for each ball of that (which may be quite different from the yarn which you actually have). See if you can find a pattern similar to what you want for that yarn, and look at the requirements for that yarn. What is the total yardage needed? - multiply the number of balls in the yarn requirement in the pattern by the yardage for one ball - then work out how many balls that would be in your yarn

or

3) European yarns usually carry a useful piece of info on the ball band. Look for the little picture of a jumper, it's normally for the average size female which I think in European terms will be quoted as 38-40, there will be an average yarn requirement for that garment (which should be a simple stocking stitch jumper with full length sleeves) given in grams. Convert to balls by dividing the number of grams needed by grams in the ball, eg. if it says 400 - 450 gms, and the ball contains 50 grams, then that's 400/50 = 8 balls or 450/50 = 9 balls. Almost always a good idea to add on an extra ball or 2 in case.

or

4) Divide the wool you have in half - using one of the halves, knit the back and one sleeve. If you haven't run out of your chosen half, then you probably have enough to complete.

or

5) A reasonably simple way to calculate yardage. Check your ball band - most balls of yarn now tell you the yardage in each ball. For this exercise only, the average chunky yarn has 50 yards to a 50 gram ball (the real yarn may be quite different).

Now look at my pattern for the simple jacket. A row of stocking stitch takes approximately a length of yarn 3 times the width of the piece you're knitting, so each row in the back 20 inches wide will take about 60 inches of yarn. Multiply that by the number of rows you need to get the length 24 inches (so that's 60 inches of yarn x 24 inches length of knitting x 5 rows per inch) which gives you 7200 inches or 200 yards. The fronts will take about the same amount again, so another 200 yards. Treat the sleeves as though they're ordinary rectangles, rather than tapered (but use the width at the top of the sleeve, not the bottom!) - that's 18 inches x 3 for the length of each row, ie 54 inches, then times 18 inches for sleeve length x 5 rows to the inch, and don't forget there are 2 sleeves(!), you get 9720 inches, or 270 yards. You also need to do the same for the front bands - 24 inches wide, so each row uses 72 inches, you have 8 rows for each band, so that's 72 x 16 = 1152 inches or 32 yards, and the collar about 16 inches wide (uses 48 inches a row, and there are about 22 rows, that's 48 x 22 = 1056 inches, or 29.33 yards. Total yardage needed is about 732 yards. Add on 10% to allow for errors, call it 800 yards. That's 16 balls of yarn.

or

6) The really anal method! (guess which one I'd use!) - Using one ball of your yarn and your larger size needles, cast on 100 stitches, and keep knitting in stocking stitch (or whatever stitch pattern you're going to use for the main part of your garment) till you run out, making a note of the number of completed rows. For example, say you complete 20.5 rows - ignore the half row, this will form part of the yarn allowed for sewing up (and safety margin)- so with one ball of yarn you can knit 20r x 100s = 2000 stitches. Looking at the pattern for my jacket, an average size as given, will eventually contain the following number of stitches:

Back - cast on row 1r x 60s = 60s
Back - garter band 8r x 60s = 480s
Back - stocking stitch 116r x 60s = 6960s
Cast off row 1r x 60s = 60s
Total for Back = 7560 stitches

2 Fronts - cast on row 2 x 1r x 27s = 54s
2 Fronts - garter band 2 x 8r x 27s = 432s
2 Fronts - stocking stitch 2 x 116r x 27s = 6264s
2 Fronts - cast oof row 2 x 1r x 27s = 54s
Total for 2 fronts = 6804 stitches

Sleeves - cast on row 2 x 1r x 30s = 60s
Sleeves - garter band 2 x 8r x 30s = 480s
rows before 1st increase 2 x 6r x 30s = 360s
rows before 2nd increase 2 x 6r x 32s = 384s
rows before 3rd increase 2 x 6r x 34s = 408s
rows before 4th increase 2 x 6r x 36s = 432s
rows before 5th increase 2 x 6r x 38s = 456s
rows before 6th increase 2 x 6r x 40s = 480s
rows before 7th increase 2 x 6r x 42s = 504s
rows before 8th increase 2 x 6r x 44s = 528s
rows before 9th increase 2 x 6r x 46s = 552s
rows before 10th increase 2 x 6r x 48s = 576s
rows before 11th increase 2 x 6r x 50s = 600s
rows before 12th increase 2 x 6r x 52s = 624s
finally for each sleeve, you have to knit a further 2.5 inches (or so) - that's 2.5 x 5 rows= 12.5 rows, call it 14 if you want to end with a purl row (makes casting off easier!)
after final increase 2 x 14r x 54s = 1512s
cast off row 2 x 1r x 54s = 108s
Total for 2 sleeves = 8064 stitches

Front bands - pick up row 2 x 1r x 90s = 180s
Garter stitch rows 2 x 8r x 90s = 1440s
Cast off row 2 x 1r x 90s = 180s
Total front bands = 1800 stitches

Neck edging - pick up row 1r x 50s = 50s
edging 6r x 50s = 300s
Collar 16r x 50s = 800s
Cast off row 1r x 50s = 50s
total for neck edging and collar = 1200 stitches

Grand total for jacket = 25428 stitches

Divide your grand total by the number of stitches you got for one ball, 25428/2000 = 12.714 balls. Obviously you have to round this up to the nearest number of whole balls, so that's 13 balls of yarn, and to be on the safe side I'd allow 10% extra, call it 15 balls in total.


Other things
Remember that garter stitch and rib use much more yarn than stotcking stitch. It's worth knitting a few rows in these to see just how much more.

ALWAYS buy more than you think you'll need, or see if the shop has a set aside policy (ie they'll reserve some extra for you in case you run out), or if they'll give you a refund / credit note if you return the unused balls in good condition. Otherwise be prepared to use up the spare stuff as scarves, sell it on eBay, add to your stash, etc.

Finally - things to do if after all that stuff above you still haven't got enough, for example you're stash-busting, rather than buying new? - See if you can get some more of the same yarn (check the dye-lot), if you can get the colour but not the dye-lot, knit it in stripes alternating every 2 rows between different dye-lots. If you can't get the same yarn / colour, then think about stripes of other yarns, or contrast edgings, or slip stitch patterns, or fair-isle. Maybe only knit a waistcoat instead. Consider knitting your pieces from the top down - divide the yarn you have into lots, 1/3 for the back, 1/3 for the front and 1/6 for each sleeve. If you knit downwards, you can see how close you can get to the desired length, and then finish off in your contrast yarn. Useful books here are any of those wonderful Odham's books published in England between about 1930 and about 1960 - and especially the ones published between 1940 & 1945 - they have titles like 'Practical Knitting' - these are full of useful tips about making do / mending (no, I'm not old enough to remember it!), and are great for stash-busting ideas, as well as being a real social history of knitting ...

Hope all of this has been of some help for you - I found that it was quite useful for me to set it all down, because it really made me think about how you do this properly (not for nothing is this b**g called Odd Ball Knitting - shameless plug here!)

How to design a simple Jacket

(This is my copyright, but you are welcome to use it. Just don't reproduce it without checking with me first - OK?)

Designing a simple jacket, or what to do if you can't find a pattern

There are several good books around that may be of help to you - eg. Maggie Righetti, "Pattern design in Plain English", and several other writers (examples Sally Melville, Montse Stanley, Debbie Stoller)include at least a small section on pattern drafting/adaptation in their books. Ann Budd's book "The knitters handy book of sweater patterns" is very good, as it doesn't rely on using any particular yarn and covers multiple sizes and basic shapes (drop sleeves, semi drop sleeves, set-in sleeves, raglan, etc) and how to adapt them, and since it uses exact numbers of stitches to the inch, might be particularly useful for the tension I was given (which works out at a nice 3 stitches and 5 rows to the square inch).

If you're feeling a bit brave, why not try writing your own pattern? - the simplest jacket is 5 pieces, a back, 2 fronts and 2 sleeves, and could be made very simply from rectangles - for example, off the top of my head (and with only a little help from my trusty calculator), here's a pattern for an average size (will fit up to a UK size 14-16) with drop sleeves, edge to edge fronts, with simple revers neckline and collar. Finished measurements will be 40" circumference, and 24" back length

Using tension as given above (if your yarn gives a different tension, you'll have to work it out yourself, but at least the methodology below should help you):

Back
cast on 60 stitches (that's half the finished circumference 20 inches x 3 stitches). Work about 6 - 8 rows in Garter stitch on a smaller needle size (say 3.5 - 4mm) - this gives you about an inch in length - to prevent curling, then change to the larger needles that give you the tension you quoted, and work in stocking stitch till you get to 24 inches (that will be a further 23 inches x 5 rows, ie 115 rows,
but call it 116 rows to end with a purl row. Cast off.

2 Fronts (both alike at this stage)
Cast on 27 stitches on smaller needles (that's 9 inches x 3 stitches - the other inch will go in the front band). Work Garter Stitch as for back, and the same length in stocking stitch as for the back then cast off.

2 sleeves (both alike)
Cast on 30 stitches (gives a wrist measure of 10 inches - you can adjust this if you like a looser wrist) on smaller needles. Work g.st as before, then switch to larger needles for stocking stitch. You are aiming for a sleeve top of about 18 inches across (which is 18 x 3 sts = 54 stitches), so you are going to need to do some increases to get there, that's an additional 24 stitches which will be increased in 12 pairs at intervals as you knit, say about every inch. So work stocking stitch for 6 rows, ending purl row. Next row inc 1 at each end of the row, work another 5 rows. Repeat these 6 rows 12 times in all - that will give you a length of approx 15.5 inches (1 inch for the g. st, and 72 rows in st.st.). Knit straight until sleeve measures 18 inches (assuming an average arm length). Cast off.

Finishing:
Block pieces if necessary. On each of the fronts you need to designate one side as the side seam, and the other side will be the opening (and these will be mirror images of each other). You need to pick up stitches for a g. stitch border. Using smaller needles and right side facing, pick up 3 stitches for every 4 rows in stocking stitch, and 1 stitch for each g.st 'ridge', so you'll pick up about 90 stitches in all. Work 6-8 rows in garter stitch and cast off.

Join the shoulder seams, these will be 6 inches in length, counting from the edge that will become the side and sleeve seams side, the middle 8 inches of the back, and 4 inches from each front will become the neck opening.

Measure down from the shoulder seam 9 inches on back and front and mark this. Attach the sleeve top between the front and back markers. Join the sleeve and side seams. (Nearly there!)

Finally! - You need to finish off the neck edge in some way, a few rows of garter stitch would do, or if you work more than a few then you would get a little collar. (Note that I have not made the front neckline lower than the back, this is because I want to encourage the jacket fronts and collar to make a simple revers neckline).
With right sides facing and smaller needles, pick up 1 stitch for each g.stitch ridge from the front edge, then 1 stitch for every stitch in st.st. (that'll be 9 stitches from each front, and 24 from the back, ie about 48 - 50 stitches altogether. If you work 4 - 6 rows, you get a neat edge - if you want a collar, work the 4 - 6 rows first, and then change to larger needles, and work another 12 - 16 rows in g.st. Cast off.

Admire! Wear! (Award yourself a large bar of chocolate if you like!)

This jacket is about as simple as it gets, in terms of shape. Think of it as a starting point ... From here, the sky's the limit - you can shape shoulders, armholes, necklines, sleeves ... and all you need is a calculator, a set of measurements, and a tension swatch!

Short intermission - do not adjust your sets ...

I'm having to re-think on the tweedy jacket - the pink yarn is too 'in your face' to use in combination with the other two (despite being a colour included in the tweedy mix yarn) - managed to get correct tension (though had to use 2 sizes bigger on needles, ie 6.5mm rather than 5.5mm) and good handle, not too stiff, not too floppy. Looked great under artifical light (and under my daylight bulb), but completely drowns out the other two yarns under real daylight (go figure!) - need to find the same sort of colour but softer (and a bit fluffier?) if that's possible.


Meanwhile, while I think about that, I know I just said in the previous post that I almost never knit the same thing twice, but I'm thinking of re-working the pattern for the ladder yarn top in this - it's Lana Grossa "Puntolinea" (which I bought in Munich in July, though I think it may now be discontinued) in yet another deep pink shade. Think the photo doesn't do it full justice, as it doesn't really show up the shininess of the yarn - it's a fairly heavy viscose-y looking tape yarn with thick and thin bits, so quite textured. Will probably leave out the pointy edging this time round, and will be going for more drape at the front neckline, so much more increasing in the shoulder darts ...

Meme me me me me me me me ...

Arrggghhh, been tagged (thanks, Uknitty!)

What is your all time favourite yarn to knit with?

Not sure that I have a favourite, just lots of it (does this make me sound a bit tarty?) - I love yarns for their colours and textures, though I'm fully aware that the purple/pink/rust colours predominate, so I have a lot of stash in those colours, and of course fancy yarns feature fairly largely. I would never / almost never knit something completely in a fancy yarn (because it's often just too much), so I guess the yarns that I fall back on time and time again are the good plain yarns with extensive colour palettes (and this is why my blog is called odd ball knitting, they're useful for eking out the fancy stuff), so my choices would be Patons Diploma DK (if I need to be economical, or for my horrible children because it washes/tumble dries brilliantly), King Cole Anti-Tickle (enormous colour range), or Jaeger Merino (best handle)



Your favourite needles?

I mainly use circulars, as I find anything else unwieldy in use - this has been the case almost as long as I can remember. Learnt to knit at the age of 6 on straight needles (those little ones in red plastic with the black balls on the ends) - hated it. Found circular needles at the age of about 14 (free gift on the front cover of my mother's copy of Woman's Weekly) - enjoyed the needles, but didn't really do anything with them.

Eventually found Inox circulars (say about 25 years ago), and these stood me in good stead until about a year ago, when I finally managed to get a set of Denise needles. These are my favourites and I knit everything with them - have only found one yarn I didn't like using (Rowan Kidsilk Haze, hence the reason for crocheting my Curly Whirly scarf instead, treated it as a stash busting exercise). As far as I'm concerned, if the needles don't like the yarn, then neither do I ...!

I also have a set of Bamboo straights, feel I ought to get around to trying them, but have not done so yet ... haven't tried Addi Turbos, fear that far from speeding up my knitting, the stitches are just going to try to shoot off the needles at every opportunity



The worst thing you've ever knitted?

I don't think I do worst things ... no I lie, a mohair dress with a drawstring neckline from the "Wild Knitting" book - in my naivete, I assumed that they meant the normal chunky mohair that was widely available at the time (early 80's), but now I think they probably meant a 4-ply mohair. Think you can imagine (particularly if you know the pattern I mean), that I looked like a rather large fluffy pink sack in it (and about as shapeless) ... At least I had the sense not to knit the huge ruffly collar that went with it!



Your most favourite knit pattern? (maybe you don't like wearing it but it was the most fun to knit.)

Generally, whatever I'm knitting at the time - I rarely knit more than one of anything, except for scarves (they're quick), as boredom is likely to set in ...



Most valuable knitting technique?

All the things I learnt from owning a knitting machine - eg. use of waste yarn, mattress stitch, short row shaping, picking up stitches correctly



Best knit book or magazine?

There's no best as such - whatever I need at the time ... My collection of knitting books, magazines and patterns is vast (a bit like my stash) and spread over nearly a century altogether (don't think the stash is quite that old ... though some of it is now well over 20, and yes I do still have plans for it - just not enough time!)



Favourite knit-a-long?

Never done one (not sure that I'd enjoy it) - the nearest I've got is the Curly Whirly team blog



Favourite knitwear designer?

erm, dunno - probably I don't notice designers nearly as much as I should - I'm usually too busy looking at the picture, and wondering how I can adapt it



The knit item you wear the most (what about a picture of it?)

I go through phases of wearing something to death, currently my cabled slipover (no photo yet available), and then I don't wear them again for some considerable time



Which lucky knitter gets this next? ;)

Knitsmith
AllTangledUp
Knitting On the Green

Now I can be a curly girly ...

,

Hooray hooray, I finished the Curly Whirly scarf! Picture here (sorry, not quite in focus!), and others on the Curly Whirly team blog ...














Now I can think about my next project, the pink tweedy jacket from IK Knitscene magazine I have these Phildar yarns from our trip to Belgium which I think will do the job, substituting for the Classic Elite yarns used in the original, though it's possible that I may need one more to get the right thickness ... Suggestions, anyone, for something thinnish (about 4-ply), fluffyish (slightly brushed would do) and preferably machine washable .... and of course to tone with the ones I already have?

I'm a Knitting Goddess (it's official ...!)

You appear to be a Knitting Goddess.
You are constantly giving and are unconcerned with
reward, you simply want others to love knitting
as much as you do. If someone wants to knit
miles of novelty yarns, you are there for them.
If someone wants to learn short row shaping,
you can help. There are no taboos in knitting,
only opportunities to grow. Everyone should
have friend like you around if they want to
learn to knit, and there's a good chance that
your passion has rubbed off on a few others.
http://marniemaclean.com


What Kind of Knitter Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Busy Saturday ...

A busy day yesterday ... went into Maidstone with Holly to see the new Hobbycraft superstore, and do a number of other errands for the rest of the family (John, "can you buy me some blank CD-R's?" and James, "Can you get me some brushes from Games Workshop", and Holly needed some trousers for school, also one of Emily's Christmas presents, the new Lemony Snicket book - no, she doesn't read this!).

Sat on the bus working on my version of the Curly Whirly scarf, which I worked out a pattern for this week. I want this scarf to be like a spiral staircase, rather than a fractal curve, so I spent some time calculating perimeters of circles of different circumferences, which will give me the number of increases I need. Anyway, I have started it - this one's in crochet on 5mm hook, in deep pink Kid SIlk Haze, and it's worked in trebles. If you can visualise a spiral staircase as seen from above, the inner edge has a 1 inch diameter circle, and the outer edge of the spiral will have an 11 inch circle diameter, giving the width of the scarf as about 5 inches. I want it to look quite luxuriously "fat", rather than too ribbon-y.

Had a very bad time in the school outfitter's shop - Ward's of Maidstone - I am never, ever, ever, ever going in there again, EVER! Useless assistants with attitude problems, poor quality stock, and nothing to be found in the size / colour we needed, and all because they stock things we have to buy - especially if the uniform has embroidered logos - ha! but I have a colleague at work who has recently acquired one of those super duper computerised embroidery sewing machines, guess who will be getting my business in future?

On the UK Handknitters list there has been much discussion lately about bad shops (Shona, you have all my sympathies!), and I think this place qualifies for that select band. Someone else said that if you get good service from a shop, you will tell (unprompted) at least 4 people, but if you get bad service you will tell at least 10 others - ho ho ho, so where better to put these remarks than a blog ...?

Found James's paintbrushes with very little difficulty, and the man in Games Workshop was really helpful (even offered me the use of his phone if I needed to check that I was getting the right stuff - and for only a £5 - £6 sale), such a contrast to the other shop - on the principle of the previous horrible experience, I'm happy to make sure that all readers of this blog know about him too ...

Cheered up by the time we got to Hobbycraft, and we met up with Amanda from UK Handknitters. It's really nice to be able to put faces to names! We both knew what the other was going to be wearing, but I actually spotted her because she was wearing a gorgeous clapotis scarf ...! Had an interesting chat and have established some useful detail about the web-site I'm planning to create for Mid Kent Knit 'n' Natter, also admired the yarns on display - too much baby yarn in my view! - but otherwise, all the new fancy yarns from Sirdar, some Patons, and a fair amount of Rowan (biggy print, and the like). I think this shop will make a great addition to the very good shops we already have in this part of Kent (C&H Fabrics in Maidstone, Canterbury, & Tunbridge Wells, and I gather from Amanda that there is a terrific shop in Singleton near Ashford, called The Wool Pen - must try and get along there at some point!)

Awfully long queue for the check-outs in Hobbycraft, but at least it moved along quite quickly, and the assistants were friendly as well, and I managed to escape without too much damage to the wallet, as I restrained myself into only getting a couple of crochet hooks in sizes that I might own, but can't find currently (obviously they're hiding in a carrier bag with a UFO somewhere around the house). Holly blew her monthly allowance on card blanks, and rubber stamps, and I treated her to a very small cross-stitch kit with a christmas-sy theme.

Wandered down to Lidl to enhance the chocolate stash instead (very cheap therapy! - and extraordinarily good chocolate), and found boxes of CD-Rs in there for £2.99 for 10 - bargain! Then to Sainsbury's for boring shopping, and back on the bus to go home. Had an embarrassing incident on the bus, when my carton of double cream escaped from the shopping bag and discharged it's contents all over the floor - the bus driver was very nice about it (when he didn't have to be), and another lady found some kitchen paper for him to clean it up ... Holly managed to pretend she wasn't with me for that bit, this is quite a talent to have when you're sitting right next to your mother!

Then off to Little Chart for a fireworks display, and it turned out that we'd read the notice in the local newspaper wrongly, and it's actually next Saturday! Never mind, the people in the pub (the Swann Inn) were very friendly, so we stayed for a drink, and a chat, and bought our tickets for next Saturday instead. Finally, back home and caught up with some friends of ours who are down from Scotland for the week-end.

So, a busy day, but mainly a nice one - I refuse to be depressed by the school outfitters, I'm just making sure that everyone knows exactly how awful they are ... ;)

Have uploaded some more photos to Flickr of our Belgian weekend ... still a few more to go, but nearly there now, only Luxembourg left to do, they're in the link marked "Other".

Back from Belgium ...

I've uploaded some photos of my weekend to flickr, and will do some more tomorrow (filled up my flash card!). until we get broadband it takes quite a long time to do, even though I reduced the size of each photo to something more manageable than 2mB ...

Had a great time anyway, with the possible exception of navigating in Belgian towns, where signposting seems to be pretty minimal - even noticed a few Belgian drivers who appeared to be lost!

So what did we do?

- In Bruges, went on a boat trip round the canals, visited the chocolate museum, ate sugared waffles, drank beer out of those enormous glasses that look like large test-tubes (fortunately, judging by the looks on various teenagers faces, ours were not the only children with embarrassing parents ...!)
- In Ypres, went to the Menin Gate for the Last Post, and visited the Hooge Crater Museum, and the Hooge Crater itself
- In Mons, found two wool-shops (Phildar & Veritas) - broke my yarn diet and bought some yummy pink yarns from Phildar for the tweedy jacket in IK Knitscene, and some rather nice random Adriafil wool from Veritas (might make a Clapotis scarf, there again might be too busy with Curly Whirlies ...!)
- In Luxembourg, walked around the old city, and visited the castle at Bourscheid (just like something out of Disney)
- In Waterloo, climbed the Butte de Lion monument (legs still hurting!)
- In Brussels, got very lost indeed ...!
- In Calais, found a really lovely bar called "Au Calice" - don't ask me the street name, but it's between the theatre, and the hotel de ville ...

And all this in 3 days ... exhausted just thinking about it! Have nearly finished the cable top, and will then have some spare time to get on with the website for Mid Kent Knit & Natter, and my contribution to the CW blog, that's unless I have a moment of virtue and do some housework (having done very little of that for some time, the place looks like a bomb's hit it, and John was moved to remark over the weekend that every time he opened a door, some wool fell on him - lucky it was only wool, I think!)

Holly is knitting a cover for her mobile phone - talked me into buying her some yarn In Mons, and borrowed some of my Denise Needles

Cable top from Womans Weekly Knitting & Stitching Special in progress