Playing catch up ... (Warning, contains MATHS!)

France

Here we are in Honfleur (photo taken by Emily). Sadly no wool shops this time, but I did get to see the Bayeux Tapestry at last. I have mixed feelings about this work, as I have the feeling that the winners get to write (or re-write!) the history books afterwards, nevertheless it really is an amazing piece of work, and the colours are MUCH brighter than I would ever have guessed at from the photos I have seen - it's really hard to believe that it's nearly a thousand years old. If you get the chance, then this is a definite Must See.

11+ exam results
Emily and I sat on the bottom stair by our front door on Thursday morning waiting for the post to arrive, and of course it was much later than usual, but she passed (with maximum marks in two out of her three papers! - excuse me a moment of maternal pride here) and has been given a place at Tonbridge Grammar School starting this September. This is the last time I will ever have to go through the stress of forcing one of my children to do practice papers, so I am utterly thrilled about that. Now we just have the joy & expense of new school uniform and equipment to worry about ... :(

I had taken a half day off from work for all this, so after I dropped her off at school, I made my way into work via Oxford Circus, as I had a little time to spare. Rowanettes, you are sadly unforthcoming on all things Liberty! - why has no-one mentioned that Liberty are now stocking some Gedifra yarns. Decided on a couple that will go part way to being a steek boa for my sister who has a birthday coming soon


Knitting and Maths - WARNING to Hazelnutcluster, don't read this bit!
I was recently asked a question about whether I feel my love for knitting is linked to my attraction to mathematical subjects, and I've been meaning to answer it for some time (apologies to Big Bird for tardiness). I suspect in fact that it may be the other way round, I liked knitting first and then realised how much maths it involves, certainly this is true if you want to design anything for yourself, and not rely on other people's patterns for everything. Also, I'm not the world's best mathematician, and I'm far better at applying maths, than I am at the theory (or pure) side of it - what this tends to mean in practice, is that I study with a view to getting the assignment or exam done, rather than necessarily understanding what I am doing ... seems to have worked so far in that I got the degree, but I think that I may have to try a little harder with this year's course, which contains entirely too much calculus (eeewwwwww!) and far too many greek letters for my liking. (Personally, I much prefer geometry)

Sirdar Loopa
Readers of Simply Knitting will already know what this is, so I won't spend too much time explaining - it's a gadget (rather like a hairpin for hairpin crochet) for making loopy scarves with NO KNITTING AT ALL involved, but it looks a bit funkier, in part due to being bright (Barbie) pink. I thought one of these would make a nice birthday present for someone I know with a forthcoming birthday, along with some assorted yarns, so I ordered a couple from here, and they arrived the next day. These are the full-sized ones (about 8.5 inches wide), not the mini version that came free with Simply Knitting. I had hoped that Holly and Emily might enjoy them, but I think the large one is a bit too big for them to use comfortably as yet, so I have had a go at stashbusting with it (partly to test how well a looped fringe only held together by crocheted chainstitch and sewn backstitch holds up in everyday use) and here are the results.

First, the whole thing is about 75 inches in length, and I used approximately 130 - 140 metres of each of the yarns, which are YarnArt 'Punky', Sirdar Country Style DK, Sirdar Country Style Brushed DK Tweed (long discontinued), Richard Poppleton Aran, and Wendy 'Velvet Touch'.


Here's a detail, colours are reasonably true to life


And here it is, modelled by Holly, so you get some idea of size / length