Tidying up is always a mistake

What I found this time was a couple of skeins of the lovely grey Gotland… They were on the floor behind the computer table. This was after I’d spun up an extra three skeins of the new Gotland to ensure I would have enough for my mate’s jumper. So as the intended recipient’s 50th birthday is today, I have given up. Well the original jumper dad rejected was upto the yoke before it was all frogged and I contemplated the Wishbone sweater in Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Almanac. I even ordered some knitting needles for it (which arrived today). I was using the Gotland yarn double-thickness, but then realised a bottom up jumper wasn’t very sensible when I was unsure how much more of the second darkest shade of the Gotland I had to spin (I’d spun all of the original three shades). This is the same jumper where I had started the yoke after knitting the body and sleeves all separately. So Plan C for this jumper was just a plain top-down raglan, which is such a duplication of work. I had gone past the armpits before finding this yarn (and beyond the point where this yarn matched the shade I was knitting).

I still really like the wishbone sweater and have done a sample of three or four strands of my handspun merino. It would make for a much lighter jumper than the Gotland. I am thinking of putting all the wool into a blue dyepot so they will all be the same colour even if different shades.

A pair of friends visited last weekend, who I always consider my young relatives. As such they got the niece treatment – forced knitting practice and learning to use a spinning wheel. Harry is left-handed so I had to suss out how to knit his way round in order to teach him. It got very confusing when I knitted my normal way as the stitches ended up being a different way round on the needle. And Dennys played on both spinning wheels as she has only spun on spindles and a great wheel before. Yes Dennys is a girl. Just think of the song a Boy Called Sue. Other than that we just sat around and chatted (and knitted) and ate. Somedays that’s all you need to do with friends.

Weekends are days of rest, no?

Our Guild’s annual exhibition was on Saturday. I dyed up some yarns to put on the sales table, and as usual the ones I disliked most were sold - other people have such odd taste! I have almost finished one sock with some of the leftover pink and green. I have gone for toe up, short- row heel and picot edge. I probably should have searched a little more to find some smaller needles as these are 13s, and the material is not really dense enough for socks. But they are pretty, so I don’t mind.

Back to the exhibition. Unfortunately it was very poorly attended. We thought a combination of the Hobbycrafts show at the NEC, Armistice day and no rain all combined against us. I got some pink spinning done anyway. There is a competition every year, the theme of which is decided by vote at January’s AGM. This year’s was a bag, and I may have mentioned that Plan A was abandoned when I realised my tension was not in the least bit consistent in the different coloured skeins I had spun. So I did the “LITTLE SLIP OF A THING” from Knitty, with some grey and white handspun and just a little tweaking. I thought a white base would be impractical (oh the words of my mother about not buying ANYTHING pale as it would show the dirt), so opted for grey with a white ridge, and then because it was easier to find the grey yarn in the mess that is my house, I did the handle in grey too. (Actually it also felted a bit better than the lustrous white). I wasn’t expecting it to be one of the favourites, but it actually came joint second (the bags were all anonymous while voting took place). Fave comment was from Mary who said “I vote for the one which catches my eye… I don’t vote on quality”, and it turned out she voted for me.


On Sunday I went to the Hobbycrafts show at the NEC to help on the Knit and Natter stand as Fred had mentioned on the UK Handknitters’ list they were after volunteers . When I eventually found the stand I was sent away again while it was quiet to see the show myself. I whizzed round two halls pretty smartish as I was not in the least bit tempted by the cardmaking equipment. Web of Wool was there so I bought three balls of yarn. As I have very small feet I will probably be able to get three socks out of each ball. I also bought some boxes from the Really Useful Products stall as I am a complete sucker for plastic storage. I may also have bought Nancy Bush’s folk socks book. It was using birthday money you know so doesn’t really count.

I only taught a couple of girls who knew some of the rudiments on knitting how to do a bit more. We did have quite a few people come and ask us knitting questions. Noonie was using a large circular frame to French knit a piece for a blanket so with my sock knitting (so many comments that they’d not seen anyone using that many needles for decades), we did attract some folk. One women claimed she had driven all the way from Lincoln to learn how to finger knit.

That time of year

My birthday yesterday was spent in London with a dreadfully early start to attend the first meeting of the re-formed Early Knitting Group (which is not limiting itself to any time period but will consider the entire history of knitting). The room was full of published authors and other erudite folk with a serious amount of knowledge between them. I consider myself a groupie as I have never done any original research, but just pick other people’s brains.

The morning was spent introducing ourselves. Though there were fewer than 30 of us there, this took a long time as everyone was asked to identity their particular interest and this sparked questions. It was a very informal gathering with a chair who banged his gavel when necessary. There were curators, university librarians, ex-knitwear designers, reenactors, costume makers and independent students. And after the introductions we had the opportunity to show things we had brought along. There was a knitted corset (commercial not hand knitted) yes complete with bones whose provenance unfortunately was not known, new knits from original mid 20th century patterns and pictures of items in museums. I took a mismatched pair of Tudor netherhose as I had failed to find a pair of either my blue or orange ones. The chair asked if my jumper has handknitted by me. Of course I was wearing one of my handspun, plant dyed cardigans, purely to show off to folk I expected would appreciate the work! Modest, well no. (pattern from Alice Starmore's Celtic Collection)


The three of us from Kentwell bought butties and ate on a bench in Hyde Park, aghast at the number of joggers on the main drag. When we returned we found an auction going on so I succumbed to two big cones of a murray colour yarn. After setting fire to some of it I know it is acrylic. The afternoon was business talk to work out what format the new group was taking. Hopefully there will be two meetings a year so that is something to look forward to!

No seaside today

You will have to imagine the view of the seaside. It was sunny. I knitted socks on the beach, and paddled, though not at the same time. I even bought wool, but it went home with my friends as I didn't have space in my bag.

And when I got home I packed a different bag and went to see a friend and the Derbyshire Guild of Weavers Spinners and Dyers Exhibition at the Silk Museum (misleadingly full of Rolls Royce engines). When I have mastered the new camera you will see photos. There were bags so I was happy!