Knitters Invade York

Wow - can't believe I have not posted here for over two months. I have been so busy, moving house, Christmas, New Year, terrible weather but that's all been and gone. What I want to tell you about is York.I went away this weekend to York to stay in a convent. There is a wonderful group on Ravelry - we are all fan's of Natalie's wonderful yarn - The Yarn Yard. But it's not all about the yarn - there is considerable amount of chatting, listening and supporting that goes on. There has developed a core of women who have become good, good friends. As a group we booked out most of the rooms on both nights I was there. (Some people stayed on for another night too - so not sure how full it was that night.) The convent was perfect for us. There was simple accommodation with a cafe downstairs. Breakfast was included - which was great but best of all was the large recreation room and kitchen which we completely took over as our crafty playground.

Both afternoons and evenings the recreation room became the centre of attraction. People were knitting, spinning, drop spindling, crocheting and tatting. There was non-stop chatter as people got to chat with old friends and to make new friends. The kitchen was soon over-run with food and drink - including an abundance of home-baking. What a talented group of ladies.

Every so often I would pause from my chat and knitting and look around in admiration of how this weekend had come together and how lovely it all was. Everyone was getting on so well together.

On Saturday I went with some others to the National Quilt Museum. It had two exhibitions on "The Celtic Fringe: Wholecloths of Wales and Scotland" and "Namad: A Persian Journey in Felt". Both were interesting but I was disappointed that we couldn't get into see the Museum itself. I think it is only accessible to Guild members. Oh well. I did get my mum something nice for her birthday though - so not a wasted journey at all.

No trip to York is complete without a visit to the amazing Duttons for Buttons. I got some buttons for a XXXX that I am knitting for my lovely friend XXXX. (hee)

Saturday afternoon was great fun. Natalie gave out club parcels to people who were in the yarn club - made me very jealous. Then we had our snowflake parcels. Everyone had prepared a parcel for someone else. What fun. Mine was the first one out and I got some gorgeous hand-knitted gloves from Kay - I adore them - Orla has her eye on them but they are too big. I also got some chocolate and bits and bobs - all still in my suitcase. Will take pics when I have unpacked. (ETA: Now unpacked and pics below - didn't I do well?)

After that Natalie opened up the shop so people could buy any of her yarn if they wanted to - was glorious to see all those amazing colours together. Yum! I bought a skein of the new (as yet unnamed) Alpaca yarn and some green yummy fibre. I was very restrained.

Finally we had a p/hop swap. Everyone brought along some yarn to destash. You could then take anything from the table that you wanted with the promise that you would donate money for the pleasure. I got some Lorna's Lace in black/yellow, some blue Posh Lei, some pink bamboo/silk sock yarn and a Meg Swansen book. Much, much less than I had brought so. my suitcase was much easier to close. I've given my donation - have you?

I think I have made a whole load of new, lovely friends and can't wait until next years.

Wunderknauel

A Wunderknauel is a ball of yarn full of gifts.

How does that work you may well ask - well you get some gifts together and a skein of wool and you wrap the presents up in the wool. The idea is that the intended then knits from the ball and gradually reveals the secrets hidden within. Such a fabulous idea don't you think.

I was involved in a swap with Ravelry and I was the luckiest person to receive mine first. So while others are still fretting about sending theirs, never mind receiving I had the luxury of my gift arriving super-early.

Here is what it looked like when it arrived...





Intreaguing huh?

The yarn is hand-dyed silk and a great shade of purple. Included were four suggested patterns - all lovely scarves and shawls. I decided to try one but it really did not suit the yarn so frogged back and settled on the gorgeous Cobweb Shawl. It really is a nice knit. As I am not a purl-lover I am making all the purl rows garter stitch - I'm still loving it though.





Now as you will have also seen from the picture above there is some weird stuff going on. I started to knit thinking I would be able to leave all the presents wrapped in the wool but as I progressed it was becoming harder and harder to do that - the yarn was getting caught on some of the objects inside. So I decided to unravel it. But - I was already knitting and didn't want to frog back - so I started to just go for it. Of course I got in a complete mess and at the moment have three mini sections of yarn that all need winding back into one ball before I can continue. Such a numpty. Oh well - you live and learn.

It does mean, however that I have released the presents. Here they are:






Lots of lovely things - tea, coffee and jewellery. No wonder the yarn kept getting snagged - all that lovely bling!

And finally.... here is a little sneak preview of the one I am sending - a small hint - it's a very Posh parcel....

Christmas Stocking Swap - Part 1

I have been involved in a Christmas Stocking swap through my favourite site of all time Ravelry.

Basically you had to knit a Christmas Stocking for someone and someone else was doing the honours for you.  I was knitting for a lovely lady in the US - and as I know how much the Americans love us Scots I thought I would do a Scottish theme.  So here I give you the fruits of my hard work.

First up the stocking itself - I used Cascade 220 - which I am loving to knit with.  So easy and the colours are fantastic.  I based the pattern on the Cascade Christmas Stocking pattern and just adapted away.

Here it is just near the beginning, from the top, you can see how the fair isle is working with the threads being carried around on the inside.

I kept the colours to just the two -blue and white.  I used simple patterns on the majority of the stocking with saltires going round the top:

The heel was interesting to knit - you put the stitches onto waste yarn and carry on down the foot working in the round - so you end up with a long

 tube with a hole in it held together with waste yarn.  Kind of cool.  You then finish the toe and go back to the heel and finish that off too.  I just did the heel and toe in the plain cream.  I need to work on my sock finishing methods as they weren't very neat.

Finally I went back up to the top and used i-cord to give an edge and a loop at the top.  I didn't realise until I had finished that the loop was in the wrong place - and was on the side, not the back.  It's a feature!!!  Honest.

Then all that was left to do was to stuff the stocking with goodies.  I put in some handmade stitch markers - made by the lovely Vicki at Wild Fire Fibres.  They were so cute - I bought a set for me too - and some Christmas Tree ones too.

I added in some mulled wine sachets, a macaroon, some oatcakes and 2 skeins of Jamieson's yarn.  I hope everything is loved!

Ravelry

I cannot wait for Ravelry to be set up. It looks like it rocks. A place to store notes on projects, current, future and ongoing. Pictures of yarn galore and lots of information. The catch? It's too popular... so my status at the moment is:

• You signed up on July 14, 2007


• You are #16409 on the list.


• 10053 people are ahead of you in line.


• 2861 people are behind you in line.


• 31% of the list has been invited so far

This site looks like it is a victim of its own success before it has even launched. *grin*