Bits & Pieces

It seems that lately I've only got bits and pieces done. A little of this, and a little of that. I can't seem to get any consistency, especially in blogging. I think it is because I am still trying to find my way back into a routine following my surgery. I am still trying to push myself to do thing,s to find out what the consequences are. I need to find my new limits before I can establish a routine that works. I want to do as much as I can while I am able, so that means stretching myself further than I've done for a while, which results in pain and fatigue, which means less energy for blogging. It is a good thing though because it means I am doing more, even it means less knitting.

I did start work on a hat for this Winter. It is the Cambden Cap by Woolly Wormhead. I bought the yarn ages ago, Malabrigo Rios, and it really is lovely stuff, like all Malabrigo.

It is the yarn suggested by the pattern and bought it especially. It is very rare for me to do that, as I usually want to save money, but as this was only one skein I decided to splurge. I found the Rios at Tangled Yarn. They have such lovely and decadent yarns there, I always want to buy more than I should, whenever I go to the website.  The yarn is superwash, which means it won't felt if it gets rained on, which is kind of important in a hat, in the UK!

The pattern is from Woolly Wormhead's latest book, Classic Woolly Toppers.  I like that you get the option of getting the PDF with the purchase of the book.  This is the option I went for, because I like looking through a physical book, but I prefer to work from a PDF, so I don't feel bad about marking it up with notes.  This pattern is the main reason I bought the book.  I really, really wanted to knit this pattern.  It has a peak, which is something I really value in a hat, especially in Winter, when we have a low sun that shines in your eyes.  It also keeps rain off my glasses.

I started work on the peak last week and got as far as blocking that part out.

I managed to gunk up my iron in the process.  I don't normally steam block, but this seemed the best and quickest way to get on with the hat.  I forgot that I have a setting to clean out the limescale on my iron and managed to use that setting while steaming.  Looks great doesn't it?  It all cleaned off, so don't worry, and I didn't drip any gunk on the hat!

Once I had a peak I set about making a template to cut out of plastic to insert in the peak pocket.  The way I blocked this peak was all wrong.  I should have checked the shape suggested in the pattern for the template, and blocked in that shape.  The shape suggested was much more elongated, less curved.  I think it relaxed into the right shape after blocking though, so it has worked out.

My process stopped at this point as I couldn't find any template plastic in the house.  I'm sure I have a packet somewhere, I just can't find it.  I use it for patchwork, which isn't often, but I thought I would have remembered using my last sheet up.  Never mind, I've ordered a couple of sheets and they came today.  I can now pick up where I left off, and get my lovely new hat finished!  The pattern suggests using an old plastic drink bottle, but I wanted to make sure the peak was stiff enough to keep the rain off my glasses.  I think I was right to wait, but it was hard putting the project to one side, when the yarn is so lovely to work with.  I hope to get on with it later today.  I wonder if I could get it finished by Friday - probably not, I have other bits and pieces I need to crack on with.  I'll tell you about them another time!

For the first time in ages, I'm hooking up with WIP Wednesday, over on Tami's Amis.  Click on the button to see what other people are up to!

Another Thing To Be Blocked

It's official - my blocking pile is getting out of hand.  I now have 4 lovely things that need blocking.  They really are lovely too, so it's frustrating that they are a crumpled mess that can't be used until I'm properly healed. It's frustrating from a blogging point of view too, because I don't want to show photos of said crumpled messes.  I want to show photos of the finished product, when it's looking at it's prettiest.

My latest finished project is a Christmas gift (it may be the first and only time I'm not rushing a huge project at the last minute) so I can't show any gorgeous finished photos anyway, so I'll just show a teaser photo of when I was casting off.

I wish I could show you more of this item, because it is gorgeous. Ah well, at least I'll have something to blog about in the post-Christmas lull.

In other news, I received the yarn that was dyed for the winner of my Blogging Anniversary Contest.  The yarn is gorgeous, and I very nearly kept it for myself.

The yarn chosen by the winner, Monica is BabyLongLegs Semi-Precious DK in the colourway Purple Tempest.  It is sooooo yummy. It's soft and supple with an amazing drape and richness of colour.  Whatever Monica, makes with this yarn will be something very special indeed.  It broke my heart to pack it up with the rest of her prize and post it out to her.

I really do recommend checking out BabyLongLegs yarn, by clicking on the button, as it is incredibly sumptuous and decadent, and we all need little luxury in our lives, don't we!

It's Wednesday..... I think!

I gather, from all the WIP posts in my feed reader, that it must be Wednesday.  I don't really keep track of days much at the moment, because I have an empty schedule.  But I thought I would join in today, with WIP Wednesday, and test out my new "easy on the body" version of blogging.  It has gone surprisingly well so far!  I simply snapped some photos (they aren't great, but they are certainly not bad) and loaded them onto my lovely new laptop, tweaked them a bit and here we are!  I have to say, getting a laptop was one of my better ideas.  It is lovely to lay on the sofa downstairs - in the same room that I take the photos in - and work on the Internet.

As I went into hospital last week I, of course, had to have surgery knitting.  Surgery knitting has to be very straight forward, it has to take up only small amount of space and most importantly it has to start conversations!  When you are in hospital you are surrounded by strangers, both staff and patients, and having something to keep you occupied AND encourage conversation is a winner on my list.  So I scoured my favourites and my stash and came up with a combination I could live with.  It wasn't until after I got home from hospital, that I found the reason the combination felt so right together was because I had seen the yarn and the project together before - in the same colourway too, on Crafts from the Cwtch!

The pattern is Nuvem by Martina Behm, the same person who designed Hitchhiker, the scarf I made last year.  It's a HUGE stocking stitch elongated hexagon with a ruffle around the edge.  The pattern is perfect brainless knitting and you can see that I got started in hospital, where it did indeed mean that I had 3 nurses and another patient round my bed at one point.  They were fascinated by knitting this on two long circular needles. I had to carefully explain how it worked and they loved the yarn as much as I do.  The yarn is Garnstudio DROPS Lace, which is a lace weight, alpaca/silk blend.  It's lovely and the sage green bares a very striking resemblance to another project I am working on.

The yarn on the left is the Garnstudio yarn and the yarn on the right is Posh Yarn Audrey 2ply, which is a cashmere/silk blend.  They look as if they were dyed in the same pot.  The Posh Yarn has 60% silk content and the Garnstudio has only 30% silk content which is why I think it has a more matte finish.  I am feeling pretty lucky about this close match because my Posh Yarn seems to be running out faster than I would like.  I may have to subsidise the Posh Yarn project with the Garnstudio yarn as an edging.  I won't share the pictures or project details here, because it is a gift.  If you are a knitter who is interested, you can see it on Ravelry.  This secret project has had most of my attention this week, but it hasn't stopped me casting on yet another project!

Meet Stonybrook!

This pattern is by Wendy Poush, and is part of the Twist Collective Winter 2011 Collection.  These are convertible mitts, which are something I've wanted for ages.  I had been looking for the right pattern for a while and these seem to fit the bill.  They are quite long in the arm and the flap isn't loose and floppy when not fastened down.  It also has the option to create a convertible thumb flap too.  This means, out on my scooter I can have toasty warm hands and wrists and not have to remove the mitts when I get inside a shop.

I am not sure my yarn choice is the best one for showing off the cables as it is a fuzzy alpaca based yarn.  The yarn is Rowan Lima and it is so light and pretty, and also in this post's colour theme of sage green!  The soft fuzzy chainette yarn hides the cable quite a lot.  I did think about ripping this mitt back and using a different yarn that would make the reversible cable pop, but this yarn is too delicious for me to set aside.  I really want to wear these mitts even if the cable is lost, because they will be warm and light and soft.  Maybe after I've made and worn these for a while I will get the urge to knit the pattern again in a nice plump wool, but at the moment I just want these mitts to be done so I can wear them.

To see other projects that aren't sage green, click on the button!

Pure Wool - Book Review

If you are a regular reader of this blog you will have probably noticed that I don't do reviews.  I don't do advertising,  in fact, the giveaway last week is the first time I have taken advantage of a giveaway sponsor.  This blog is not a commercial enterprise.  My patterns are for sale, but that income is for designing the patterns, not for blogging.  This is the way I like it.  This blog is my connection to the world, not a job.  I'm not well enough to make it a job.  If I have things like advertisers I start to worry about a posting schedule and blog content and all of a sudden I have pressure that I don't need.  However, I am going to make an exception today.  I am going to take part in a blog tour.  The blog tour is to promote a book about a subject that is dear to my heart - wool, and more specifically British wool.  This is a first for me, and I didn't receive any payment in return for my review, though I did receive a copy of the book, and I hope it goes without saying that all opinions are my own and I did not agree to give a positive review before taking part.

The author of this book is Sue Blacker who is a well known face on the British knitting scene.  She runs and owns Blacker Yarns which concentrates on the sale of breed specific British yarns, which are produced in her specialist wool mill in Cornwall.  She also spins the wool from other wool producers, who have small specialty flocks.  Sue is also well known for her work on promoting British Wool.  She has a vast range of knowledge about her passion and she has written this book about it called Pure Wool.

As I received a physical copy of the book I can tell you that it is slightly wider, but shorter than an A4 sheet of paper and the cover has a flap at both the front and rear of the book.  Jacket flaps are something I find really useful when reading or using a book, to mark my place. The text is in a nice clear font which makes it a pleasure to read rather an exercise in squinting.  The cover and the pages are matte in finish, and the font is a soft grey colour, rather than black, creating a muted appearance to the book, without sacrificing clarity.  As a "thing" this book is rather lovely.

Now, onto the bit you are probably most interested in, the content.  The book starts with a basic introduction to wool, discussing the process from shearing the sheep to the final plied yarn.  This introduction also outlines the philosophy of Sue Blacker and her work.

"It is obvious to me......that the arguments about and loveliness of natural wool should go hand-in-hand to sustain a future for both wool and sheep."

There is also a section that details the terminology used throughout the book, that will probably prove to be very useful in future encounters with yarn of any type.

After the introduction the book is divided into sections that relate to a specific breed of sheep and the fleece it produces.  Each section is subdivided into a section regarding; fleece, the yarn it produces and one or two patterns that optimise the qualities of that specific breed's fibre.  There are 17 breeds of sheep included in the book, some of which you will probably of heard of, such as the Blue-faced Leicester or Jacob, and others which are a little more obscure, such as the Manx Loaghtan and the Gotland.

Each section gives a description of the heritage of the sheep breed and summarises lots of sources of further information on the breed.  There is also a picture of the breed - and who doesn't like pictures of sheep?

Then comes my favourite bit of this book, the Fleece Fact File page.  This page has pictures of the raw fleece, scoured fleece and carded fleece. It also has images of different weights of spun yarn and an image of a knitted sample of the yarn, produced from this fleece.  The Fleece Fact File page also gives a summary of qualities of the fleece, such as crimp, colours, and handle.

It is these two parts of each section, that give all the information about the breed and it's fleece, which make this book a coffee table book.  You can dip in and out of each section looking at interesting pictures and gaining snippets of information about sheep breeds and their fleeces.  These sections alone would create a lovely book to own.  However, there is more to this book than pictures and facts, there are also patterns.

Each pattern is designed with a specific breed's fleece in mind.  They are created to utilise the qualities that are evident in each fleece, as well as to produce an attractive and useful end product.  The patterns range in complexity from a cafetiere and egg cosy, to stranded colourwork in a waistcoat and intricate cabling in a sweater.

My favourite patterns include; the Scallop Shell Top by Rita Taylor that uses Blue-faced Leicester wool,

Wavy Cable Jumper by Amanda Jones that uses Pure Cotswold wool, and, as most of you know, I love a good bag, the Hebridean Handbag by Sue Blacker that uses Hebridean wool.

The patterns are clearly written and have nice snippets of information about the designer and those who knitted the samples used in the book.  I like to know about the designers of the patterns I knit and it is also a nice touch that acknowledges the sample knitters who are an incredibly important part of the process of the publication of patterns.  Without good samples, no one would want to knit something, no matter how good they are told the design is.

After the main sections of the book are detailed tables summarising all the information about the fleece and yarn qualities and suggestions for yarn replacements for the patterns in the book.  It also has a section on dying the yarns.

Overall, this book is full of useful and interesting information, alongside a wide range of patterns suitable for most abilities of knitter, that they can refer to time after time.  It really is a lovely publication that I'm glad to have on my shelf of craft books.

You can purchase the book directly from Blacker Yarns for £12+£3 P+P in the UK or on Amazon or through the publishers Bloomsbury Books or Stackpole Books for $19.99 in the US.


The next blog on the tour, is Shannon Okey's Knitgrrl.  Go and read what she thinks tomorrow.


NOTE: All photographs were provided by Bloomsbury Books on my request for the purposes of this post, and are copyrighted.

Home Again

Just thought I'd do a quick post to let people know that I am home and ok after my surgery on Wednesday.  I had an overnight stay as they messed with my normal pain medication due to a slightly longer surgery than normal.  It meant I suffered a lot more on waking than I should have done and it took a good 12 hours to get my pain properly under control again.

I probably won't know if the surgery has improved things or not until the pain from the surgery dies down, so maybe a couple of weeks.

I'm just so happy to be home and have a good night's sleep under my belt, as my night in the hospital was punctuated by lots of people being properly ill.  It was the first time I had tried to sleep on this type of ward as I have either been lucky enough to be in a single occupancy room or on wards where people were like me and only had to stay a few days in hospital for small and planned procedures.

I feel much better now I've had a good meal (hospital food still isn't improved at all), a good night's sleep in my own bed and a lovely hot shower.  I am so grateful to have my new laptop as I can lounge on the sofa and get up to date with my favourite blogs, it makes feeling back to normal much easier.

Hopefully in the next week or so I'll be back to normal, but I do have a post scheduled on Monday, 8th October, so please come back and check that out.