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