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On the way home from MDSW, I realised with a start that the following weekend was Mother’s Day and, having just finished and falling in love with my cobbled-together version of Mary-Heather’s Simple Things shawlette, I decided to quickly knit one up for my mum.
I cast on the next day, using the Rumba yarn I’d picked up at MDSW and knit as fast as two demanding toddlers would let me. Big needles (8mm) helped it move along quickly, and I finished it just in time.
Unlike the previous version, I loved this yarn, loved the way the deep raspberry colour melted into the caramel brown. And I kept asking myself if Mum wouldn’t really be perfectly happy with a hastily bought bottle of perfume…? But I was a good daughter and gave it away on the Sunday. Mum was suitably delighted, which softened the blow.
I note, however, that she hasn’t worn it once so far — never mind that the weather has never dipped below 70 since — and if I don’t see it round her neck soon, I may be stealing it back!
I love the way the yarn overs came out using bigger needles. There’s something really graphic about the big stitches, the big holes. It looks to me a little like this scarf has a spine… looks a bit like the skeleton of a dinosaur in the natural history museum. That’s really weird, but I kinda like it!
As I said when I started this blog, I never finish anything, knitting-wise. I have hundreds, thousands… nay, millions of unfinished projects lurking in dark corners of the house, all hoping that the sun will shine on them again one day. It’s just get so excited by trying new things — new stiches, new patterns, new shaping, new yarn — that it’s impossible to resist until I’ve finished whatever I’m currently working on, and I find myself casting on something new — just to see — before the current project is even cool on the needles. And that’s ok, because I don’t knit for the final product — I’m a process knitter. It matters less to me to be that I come away with something at the end than that I just enjoy the knitting. The click-clack of the needles, and feel of the yarn in my hands, the smell of the wool, and the rhythm of the stitches… That’s what it’s about for me.
But when I saw Mary-Heather’s Simple Things shawlette, I wanted it. I wanted it. And that was a strange sensation — and one I didn’t trust. But I realised the project was small enough and quick enough that I might actually have a shot at getting it done before I moved on, like a drifter, to the next shiny thing that caught my eye.
No pattern available yet, but I studied Mary-Heather’s photos and reckoned I could work out at least a good approximation of the pattern. And so I looked through my stash for some decent yarn to try it out with, and cast on.
The funny thing is, I didn’t like the yarn as I was knitting. I wasn’t sure I liked it in the ball, but the more I knit with it, the less I liked it. The colours jarred. And pooled. It felt scratchy. It was too marroon-y, and I didn’t like the yellow or the orange bits. Time and again I thought to myself that I would just rip it all out and start over with another yarn… but I never had one to hand at that moment, so I carried on.
I finished it on the way home from MDSW and here’s the crazy thing about this scarf: as soon as I put it on, I loved the yarn. Loved it! Couldn’t stop looking at it! Then I took it off and looked at it and… I didn’t like it. Put it back on, and loved it… Took it off again, and didn’t like it.
And, I still don’t like it. Until I put it on — and then I love it. I just totally don’t get that.
You might think I’d not been doing anything, but I have — I just haven’t been talking about it much. In fact, I’d rather let the pictures do the talking…
I finally dug my wheel out of the moving boxes. Here’s the result: handspun Merino top from Stony Mountain Fibers…
I’ve also been doing a lot of spinning on the beautiful spindle that Sheila at Journeywheel picked for me. Here’s my first attempt at plying on a spindle…
Here’s the chunky jacket I was designing for my daughter, using Creme Puff yarn from Decadent Fibers, and it was going fantastically when… when… I realised I can’t find the second skein!!! It wasn’t in the moving box I thought it was, and the garage is full to bursting with boxes… it could be in any of them! This has been quite a blow, and I have completely lost my knitting mojo. I just can’t find anything I feel like knitting now…
And here’s the Debbie Bliss baby cardigan I was working on. It’s come out so lovely, and I am really pleased with it.
Really, this cardi should have had an unhappy ending, because my daughter would have surely outgrown it long before I finished it, if it weren’t for the beating she’s taken from her food allergies that stopped her growing for seven months. Getting her diagnosed and managing her condition has been a really difficult experience for her and for me, but the silver lining is that she stayed small enough that this cardi fits her perfectly now! It feels a bit sacriligious to say that though…
Did I say I was going to sort out my project-list and blog about it? Did I say that?
Yes, I remember (and the proof is staring out at me accusingly in the post below). No sooner had I said than my body decided to start a hormone-surge that has had me spending every free moment asleep in bed, rather than knitting or felting (or cleaning, or caring for my babies, or talking to my husband, or blogging…). I have not touched my knitting in at least a fortnight and I am missing it so!
If the hormones settle out a bit this week, I hope to do as I promised and get my projects lined up all neatly. I’m also considering going to a new knitting group this Friday that I’ve found out about. This would be the first knitting group I’ve ever gone to uninvited — I saw it listed on a blog I stumbled across and there was a general invitation for anyone to join, but I’ve never really done that before. I am a little nervous. But I am also new here, and how else does a person get started in a new place than by being bold and making the first move? So… if I get my courage up… perhaps I will.
I will let you know. Watch this space.
The baby hasn’t given me much opportunity to knit this past week. I was doing my knitting whilst breastfeeding her but, just lately, she’s realised there’s something very exciting going on behind her head and started flailing her free arm around behind her to try to grab it. That messes up my knitting either because she gets hold of it and I drop stitches or else my tension just suddenly goes all over the place …and it darned well HURTS when she pulls away like that. So, I haven’t been doing much knitting lately.
But I have been craving it. Even when I’m too busy to pick up my needles, when I’m cooking mini-lunches and folding laundry, I find myself knitting in my mind, allowing my subconscious to relax into that nice rhythm of needles and stitches. That’s when I know I really need it.
I treated myself to some nice wooden 12mm Brittany needles from Yarnsmith for the maroon cardigan, and that alone inspired me to go back to it with as much gusto as time will allow. It’s lovely to knit on wooden needles — makes all the difference in the world. The cardigan has grown surprisingly quickly, despite how little I’ve been knit, and it’s quite exciting to see it take shape. It deserves more time than I’ve been able to give it, but I am determined to put that right as soon as possible!
It’s killing me, but I’ve missed every one of the Knitting and Stitching Shows this year. This weekend is the Harrogate show — the last one — and last year, we were THERE! I didn’t think we’d still be in the country, so I didn’t organise for us to go. How I wish I had!
It is so worth the trip. Miles and miles (so it seemed, anyway) of pure knitting heaven. There were fashion shows, knitting-as-art exhibits, classes and workshops, the graduation pieces of fashion students from universities all over the country. And the retail booths — hundreds of retail booths — selling the best stuff from knitting shops up and down the country: yarn and needles and bags and on and on and on. It is packed, it is tactile, it is colourful, it is bliss.
If you get the chance to go next year, GO!
Everyone knows that knitting English is inefficient: you hold the yarn in your right hand and have to grip both needles with your left while you let go with your right to throw the yarn around the working needle. The fact that it’s not nearly as quick or tidy as knitting Continental is obvious at first glance. But it’s how I was taught, so it’s what I can do. I can knit while watching telly, I can knit in the dark, and — when I’m very very tired — I can knit with my eyes shut, half asleep, only awake enough to keep that lovely rhythmic movement going. Click clack, click clack…
Every now and again, I decide I’m going switch and start knitting Continental, but I’ve never had any success. I go from flying through my knitting to feeling like a complete beginner again, taking each stitch slowly, having to really look at every move as I try to pull the yarn through, whilst my tension descends into chaos. I get incredibly frustrated, give up, and go back to throwing my yarn with speed and ease from my right hand.
I tried again today and I did nearly a whole row in Continental. I was very pleased with myself! I got through probably 100 stitches before I gave myself a break and switched back to English — a good start I felt… maybe I’d try again on the next row. I turned the work and purled back. When I hit the stitches that I’d knitted Continental, I discovered all the loops were backwards and I had to turn each one before I could work it. My progress slowed to a crawl, and I wondered why I’d even bothered.
I must be doing something wrong. Is it worth trying again? I’ve been knitting English in inefficient bliss for nearly 20 years. Maybe I should just stick with what I know…
Only a few days ago, I lamented that Vogue Knitting’s website has been down for months and months and — voila! – it’s suddenly back up again. I can only conclude that the powers that be at VK read my blog and, realising my distress, set to work immediately to rectify the situation.
A power like this could be a pretty exciting prospect! Do you think if I mentioned that I really want some lovely wooden needles for Christmas they might magically arrive at my door? A girl can hope, can’t she?
It’s every knitter’s secret fantasy, isn’t it? To run your own yarn shop… to be surrounded by all that wool and silk and cotton… and lovely wooden needles and all those fun bits and bobs that go along with knitting. To make your life’s work out of your life’s passion — what joy!
Here’s your chance: Yarnsmith is up for sale. Brooke is having her second baby soon and will be focusing on that for the time being. Here are all the details from her email:
Many of you may already know that yarnsmith is for sale. I’m expecting another child next March and have decided that I don’t have the mental or physical space for it any more. This is a great opportunity for anyone who is interested in a viable business that will allow them the flexibility of working on their own from home.
The sale includes £3,500 worth of stock, a fully functioning website, a recognised brand including electronic logo, stationary, and advertising designs, and an existing customer base and mailing list. The asking price is £6,500.
If you are interested, please contact me by e-mail on brooke@yarnsmith.co.uk.
In the meantime, we are still taking orders on remaining stock by e-mail or phone. Everything is 20% off of the website price and payment is by cheque or paypal.
Thank you,
Brooke McConochy
www.yarnsmith.co.uk
For those of you who aren’t in a position to buy your yarn-shop dream right now, don’t miss that 20% discount tucked in amongst the details above.
Brooke, I wish you the best of luck with the rest of your pregnancy and with the birth. You are in for quite a ride, but it’s a wonderful one!
I hate working on circular needles! You’d think I’d love it, with my shoulder problems and the fact that circular needles reduce the weight of the knitting pulling on your back and shoulders, but I don’t. They drive me nuts. The needles never sit straight for me; the circular bit is always kinking; the needle bit is always too short so I have to keep my hands bunched together to make my stitches; the ball of yarn keeps migrating into the center of the circle and then out and then in. For me, kills the joy of knitting …and kills the knitlust.
I knit all the pieces (back, sleeves, and fronts) of the Classic Baby Cardigan as far up as the armpit and they are now transferred onto a circular needle to that the yoke can be knit as one piece. I really enjoyed knitting each individual piece on my lovely wooden needles with the bobbly tops. Now that the whole thing is on circulars, I find myself avoiding working on it. I will persevere — not least because with each row now the number of stitches decreases and so goes that much faster.
But it just goes to show how important good equipment is to whole knitting process. It helps me to justify my ever-growing collection of wooden needles and my mountains of unused-but-beautiful yarn. It’s about quality, people, QUALITY!
