Friday, April 28, 2006

Ill-gotten gains ...?



... my prize arrived from Simply Knitting magazine. As you can see, 10 balls of each of Sirdar Vegas, Frenzy and Boa, and some patterns to go with them. The accompanying letter said £75 worth (which I think is actually the wholesale price, as I'm pretty sure that each of these yarns retails for £3.50 - £4).

Sadly no time to update my blog further this weekend, as I'm going to be busy, so I will have to update you all on my Stashalong day off (for good behaviour?), and dropping in on the Rowanettes in a few days time. Have a happy bank holiday weekend, everyone!

Monday, April 24, 2006

Frappr warning ...

... I've had a couple of hefty spam attacks on my frappr map this weekend. Just giving the heads up to everyone who has one, make sure that you set your membership requests, and forums to 'moderated' ...

Sunday, April 23, 2006

Hairsticks, and simple scarf



Found these in Claire's Accessories (cheap tat mecca for all little girls 6 - 66) yesterday for £3.50 the pair. Holly & Emily were very confused, especially since Holly & I had just had our hair cut short ("what do we need these for, Mummy?").

Well, they make perfect shawl / scarf fastenings ... see here. One ball of medium weight mohair (eg. GGH Mohair would be good). Cast on 20 - 24 stitches on 5.5 - 6mm needles. Knit in your favourite simple lace pattern (mine is 2 selvedge sts, *yo, k2 together *, repeat to end of row, 2 selvedge sts, and each row the same) till you have nearly run out of yarn. Cast off. Block as needed. Pin scarf with hair stick.



This one is not in GGH, but is a similar weight (about 150m to 25g).

Saturday, April 22, 2006

A good day ...

... despite having to go to work yesterday. Cakes in the office, courtesy of M&S (the lemon drizzle cake is especially popular), and several beers with colleagues at lunchtime.

Got home to find my books have arrived, and they are both fantastic, am especially knocked out by Debbie New's book (it is AMAZING!). I have some book vouchers, so will have to decide what to buy with them (I love the feeling of walking into a book-shop or indeed any shop knowing that I have free money to spend, and I can usually spin the deciding process out for weeks ...!). I also have some beautiful Brittany Birches from Hazel (so will have to decide on a suitable project for them, to match their beauty if you see what I mean).

Then to Janet's for a Weekenders party - I love their clothes, elasticated waistbands (whisper it quietly in case the Style Police are listening!) and all, easy to look after, and great for travelling - spent lots of money (always fun), and Janet & Rachel had organised cake & wine as well.

Overall, a really happy day - and I hope that Annarella, Ruth's Dad, my niece Tuesday, 'Only fools & Horses' Nicholas Lyndhurst, and of course, Ma'am (drops a quick curtsey), had a good day too.

Holly took one look at me when I said about having to get my photo taken, and said I have to get a haircut ... drat, that's this weekend's fly in the ointment to come!

Have completed another couple of Loopas, and still working on the fichu ... photos later.

Thursday, April 20, 2006

Exciting news ...

... I'm 47 tomorrow. Um ... OK, it happens to be true, but that's not the really exciting news (although I have some nice knitterly pressies heading my way, including copies of 'The Opinionated Knitter' and 'Unexpected Knitting', so of course I'm excited about those).

But I digress - the really exciting stuff is that I got a phone-call from Simply Knitting magazine this afternoon, and the green Steek Boa is runner-up in their recent scarf competition. How COOL is that?! I have to send it to them for photographing, along with a picture of me, and I think it will be in the issue after next (think that's sometime at the end of May?)

Sunday, April 16, 2006

Caen Hill Locks, Devizes

There are 29 locks in the flight altogether, but the really spectacular part is the central part which is a staircase of 16 locks, one after the other. Here we are waiting our turn to go into lock 29 (at the bottom of the central section)



And here we are at lock 44 (the one at the top of the central section). Trust me when I tell you that looking back down (after you've done them all) is much better than looking up (knowing they're still to do) ...!



Not very much knitting done this week (too knackered), but I've completed a few loopa boas for Hazel's charity craft stall in November, which also counts as de-stashing (two birds with one stone?)

PS In answer to all the comments, you have to do the locks on most canals yourself, ie. let the water in or out as needed, open the gates, drive the boat in, close the gates again, and raise or lower the water levels (depending on which direction - up or down - you're going in), drive out, and close the gates behind you. If you do a large river, like the Thames, there are lock-keepers to do most of it except steering the boat. If you check out my flickr gallery here, this should give you a flavour of a canal boat holiday. I don't generally do the steering (makes John very nervous!), but I'm pretty efficient at lock gates by now, and although James wasn't with us this holiday (and sorely missed on Caen Hill itself), Holly and Emily are now just about large enough to be able to raise water levels and open gates (sometimes with a little extra help, if the gates are very heavy)

Saturday, April 15, 2006

Happy Easter!

Been away for a few days on a canal boat on the Kennet & Avon Canal with John and the girls. James decided to be a teenager and not come too, so with much trepidation we let him stay at home - arrived home, and the house is still there, so I think he probably had a good time too.

Photos tomorrow, too tired tonight (and there are too many of them to deal with now), and still got the unpacking to do, but for those of you who know (or care!) about such things, we managed to complete the Caen Hill flight of locks (29 of the things) at Devizes, Wiltshire in about 6 hours, which is considered pretty good going ... and we even get a certificate to prove it (oh, I'm having one of those Muttley moments, aren't I?)

Thursday, April 06, 2006

Oh my ...

A sorry tale, I think ... done the inventory, and filled up large plastic crates. As soon as I have worked out how to do a simple table (or post an Excel spreadsheet), I will. In the meantime you'll have to read the description instead ...

Firstly, some totals - I have about 336 balls of yarn, or about 18 kilograms of yarn, or nearly 41 kilometres of the stuff, in various quantities, ranging from enough to make a coat right down to just enough for a mobile phone holder. Gulp!

A truly international collection - I have yarns from lots of English companies: Sirdar, Wendy, Patons, Hayfield, Jaeger, King Cole, Rowan, Robin, Lister, Stylecraft, Colinette, Debbie Bliss, Twilleys of Stamford, Hipknits, SIlkwood, Louisa Harding; along with a fair cross-section of French (Phildar), German (Online, Schachenmayr, Wolle Roedel, Regia), Italian (Lana Grossa, Gedifra, Ornaghi, FIlatura di Crosa, Adriafil), Scandinavian (Hovland), Turkish (Yarnart, Ice Yarns), and Japanese (Noro) yarns.

A few of the highlights - 2 lots of 10 balls of Filatura di Crosa Valentin mohair (2500 metres each lot), one in red, the other in charcoal, 15 balls of Coriandolo (fancy boucle) and 10 balls of Sympathie (smooth wool/mohair blend), both also by FIlatura di Crosa, which appear to be a colour match in Parma violet shades - bought these on eBay recently. Then there are about 20 balls of Jaeger Matchmaker DK in assorted land- and sea-scape colours - one day I will get around to knitting the Hokusai Wave jumper from Elle (the french magazine, not the spinner), 5 balls of Regia Canadian (working on a secret project with this currently), four skeins of kid mohair (mentioned in the previous posting), 4 balls of Colinette Isis, 4 skeins of Noro Blossom, and (just for Fred! ;P) 12 balls of Sirdar Dune (I'm planning something very evening-y in this.)

By the looks of things, I have sufficient to knit 20 jumpers, 10 shawls, and about 35 scarves / assorted small projects - is this SABLE or not? - and it seems that what I mainly go for is texture/colour. It certainly isn't yarn content (there's an awful lot of acrylic in them thar stash boxes ...) Better get knitting, I think!

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

New toy ...

... in the sidebar, just under the Frappr map. Check it out here

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Virtuous ...?

More than halfway through the inventory, and I have filled up a very large supermarket-sized bag with stuff that I know I won't use (as far as I can guesstimate, there's 2 - 3 kilos in there), but would hate to just throw away.

Daughters Holly & Emily are going to take it down to the Charity Shop for me tomorrow for the lady that makes small afghans and the like, so none of it will be wasted, but it won't be eyeing me accusingly any more from the stash pile either - hooray, feel quite virtuous! - just got to complete the inventory now ...

Thanks to Wibbo for the answer to the name of the shop that used to be off Carnaby Street ("The Yarn Store"), here's another one for you all - does anyone remember a shop in the Yorkshire Dales called (iirc) "Knitters of Dent", have just found 4 assorted skeins of kid mohair (each approx 400m in length), and I think hand-dyed, which I bought in there. It cost me an arm and a leg (well actually, about £28) 25 years ago - what I'm actually after is the name of the spinner, but think this one might be too difficult ...? (Unless someone knows better, of course).

Sunday, April 02, 2006

Arrrgggghhhh ....

....... this inventory thing is going to take weeks! Everyone else seems to be so organised by comparison - just take a look at Wibbo's, by way of example (and she's not the only one ...)

So I've started a spreadsheet (how do you get one of those onto Blogger, btw?), and I'm typing away madly - I think most of my problems are going to come when I get down to the odd balls (so far, I've only done the most recent stuff, mainly in sweater-sized amounts), then there are the ones with missing ball bands (can anyone remember the name of that yarn shop that used to be just off Carnaby Street, for example. No? - neither can I - but I have 3 unlabelled skeins of black/red/lurex that I know came from there, approx 25 years ago). Maybe I shouldn't have started doing this - I just know it's going to depress me! - so much yarn, so little time to knit it all ...

Happier stuff, was donated 3 balls of Patons Diana (that's an old 80's one!) yesterday, should make a nice scarf, or a boa (with suitable additions), and I found a copy of 'The Patricia Roberts Collection' in the local charity shop for £1.50 (doubt if I'll ever knit much of what's in there, most of it's far too fine a gauge, but it's nice to look at, and might still give me some ideas). The lady in the shop knows someone who does a lot of charity knitting, and says that any wool I care to donate will be gratefully received, so that's a useful outlet for the stuff that I really don't want. Just got to get on and do the list, then - ho hum!