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.

Spinning

I finally got round to washing and taking pictures of my hand-spun. Here they are drying - so lovely:


Here is what I have been spinning:

First up is some Babylonglegs BFL in Mirasol - the most gorgeous colourway - oranges, browns and yellows:

(Picture taken from the Babylonglegs Folksy Site)

I was going to ply it with a pale cream undyed BFL but it was lying next to some dark brown Ronaldsay - and they just talked to each other. So I plied them together and got this yummy yarn:

Top Skein: Next up is some blue/green roving I bought from Natalie at The Yarn Yard. This was rolled into a ball and was aptly names gobstoppers and there is one shown on her blog. I plied this back onto itself and it is so soft and squish and was a dream to spin.

Botton Skein: I emptied the bobbins of all the yarn I had been using as training yarn and got a skein of mixed colours that looks a little like ice-cream. It's a bit slubby but I couldn't throw it out.

Top: The top skein is a small skein made from plain dyed merino bought from shunlikes.

Middle: I still had some of the Mirasol left and plied it with some pale grey Ronaldsay.

Bottom: I hadn't split the gobstopper exactly in half so had some left over so for fun I plied it with some of the remaining Mirasol from Babylonglegs. I really like this combination.

I was really surprised with some of these combinations and am very proud of my bundle of skeins. Do you like them?

Stuffed and Sent

Thought I'd show you pictures of the stocking I made for my swap. I based it on the Mason Dixon Christmas Stocking.

Here it is just before I sent it - all stuffed and ready to go.

Close up of the name (and yes that is how you spell her name) and I chose to do the corrugated rib as I love the effect.

Do you like the snowflake? You can see my tension is much tighter here and the stocking pulls in. Maybe next time I will go up a needle size for the fair-isle.

I put the year on the back - I like that idea. The foot just kept going though - and that toe is super-pointy!!!

Christmas Stocking Swap

I've been having a really bad, stressful time recently - won't bore you with the details here. But in the middle of all the doom and gloom something lovely arrived.

My Christmas Stocking *grin*

My lovely knitter made me this stocking:

It came full of goodies too:

There was a book, two balls of sock yarn, some Christmas pencils (which my son will love) and some fun Chinese-looking straws. The stocking is *huge* - does that mean I'll get more presents at Christmas?

Thank you so much - it really cheered me up!

Abandoned

Oh dear knitting blog - how I have abandoned you....

I will be back with project updates and ideas and lists and yarn and fibre and spun yarn.....

Not sure when though...

Log cabin Blanket

So - I started on it. I decided not to use the Rowan Tweed as I think I sold most of it. But I did realise I have a substantial stash of Cascade 220 bought for a Dr. Who scarf which I know I will never make and for Harry Potter hats/scarves.I cast on and followed the instructions and made my first square.

I love the pattern, love the colours, love the yarn... but hate the picking up. I am just rubbish at it and can't seem to get it neat. The perfectionist is telling me to rip it all back and start again but I think I will leave it and hopefully by the end of the squares I will see an improvement in my tension and my techniques.My problem seems to be using the correct part of the stitch to use when picking up - and no amount of googling is helping me to find the correct bit to use. Feeling frustrated.

In the meantime these are the colours I have to hand - but I have a few more on the way from a few kind Ravellers who are letting me buy up their Cascade 220 stashes - hee.

Log Cabin Blankets

For a long time I have drooled over the knitted log cabin blankets that I see in the Mason Dixon books and on their blog. I have a load of Rowan tweed that is yelling to be used for some big project and I think a blanket may well be the thing. So - today I was catching up on their blog and find the details for making Clif's Squares Blanket and thought this should be the one for me. Each square is worked individually and then you fit them all together at the end like a patchwork blanket. I am very excited by this and want to collect all my bits together and use this as my holiday project as it looks easily portable - and not socks. (Which I have to admit to being very, very slow at.)

The pattern looks easy enough for me to do. Knit a garter square, add on two rows of a contrasting colour, add a border block. Turn. Pick up stitches and do another contrasting colour ridge and then a border block. Repeat the turn twice more and you get a yummy square.



Photo from http://www.masondixonknitting.com