April

I had a meeting in London for work one Thursday so rather than catch a train straight home I did the nice second hand bookshop on Euston Road opposite the British Library, then I drooled over the Bedford Hours in the library itself before catching a bus to Oxford Street. I would normally have gone on the underground which I love, but I was under doctor’s orders to avoid it following an operation to mend my ear drum. There weren’t that many at the Liberty’s caff knitting gathering, and none of the people I had been expecting from Skipnorth or Yvonne, but it was pleasant company for an hour or so before another bus and then the train back to Brum.

So with a fortnight sick leave of the kind where I wasn’t actually sick or incapacitated in any way meant some knitting. I finished a top-down jumper with yarn from Skipnorth, but it’s too short so this will be undone and more length added. I have finished all the pieces of the almost cabled cardi which I started about 18months ago and here is some of it blocking on my new blocking boards

and then did the dull moss stitch collar. It still awaits having the sleeves sewn in, yes still.

I also dyed some yarn one day after being inspired by the book Yarn to Dye For. I’m not sure I have actually seen any hand painted yarn, though I have seen it for sale on various websites. In February I had actually put my warping posts in the kitchen as the only place I could create a long skein… Well how anyone can do enough of it in this way to sell is beyond me as the painting bit bored me silly. I was following instructions which recommended using dry yarn and foam brushes. I found this both time-consuming and fiddly and not at all efficient so I resorted to using a real paintbrush. Admittedly I don’t have a workroom so was carrying out this operation in the kitchen on quite a small surface. The dyes all set fine in the steamer my mum had recently passed onto me. I really liked setting the dye this way as it is does not make the kitchen stink of vinegar like microwaving does, and I don’t have to fear that the wool will burn either. As I had made too much dye, I made up another skein and just dipped it into the pots. The end result from that method is practically indistinguishable from the handpainted stuff. The skeins only look different because the handpainted one has equal measured lengths of each colour, whereas with the other skein I just dipped it into the colours based on how much dye was in the pots so there is far more pink. Logic would say there should have been the same amount of dye left over from each colour, but for some reason there wasn’t. After I’d re-skeined it I was pleased with the overall look so I will continue dyeing yarn as it is so different to dyeing rovings, but next time I try hand painting I will wet the yarn first.

The dyed BFL has been made into socks.

I was partly inspired by a visit to Much Wenlock which has a lovely wool shop called Ippiken on the main street opposite two second-hand book shops. It sold mainly Colinette and I bought some green Jitterbug. Ippiken not only has yarn, but hand crafted textiles, like felt bags too, and a lovely owner who spends her entire time knitting. That sounds like the job for me.

And then after attending the local Knitting & Crochet Guild gathering in the splendour of the Edwardian tea room in the Birmingham Art gallery on 21st April, I wandered through the galleries. And as the Midlands is in the process of reclaiming St George’s day, the emphasis is on medieval times, so there were random medieval things throughout the galleries. First up a coin man who was minting replicas, then museum curators who had objects to handle (with the white gloves on) from a very large wassail bowl to a bowling ball, and then Diabolus in Musica who were two chaps in medical garb with suitable musical instruments. I adore old English bagpipes which are as loud as Scottish ones but with a more gentle tone. Though thinking about it I suppose all the times I’ve heard them it’s probably the type of music which makes them more attractive than the bogstandard Scottish tourist tunes. The Carnival Band in particular have a couple of excellent pipers.

And once I’d emerged from there, the two squares outside both had stuff happening. I boogied a bit to the folk rock group Rack and Ruin, and slightly less so to the acoustic rock group Isambard. I then watched the Kesteven Rappers who did an incredible sword dance. There were no bells or beer bellies involved and the average age appeared younger than the other morris teams wandering about. The dance was done with each man holding the end of two very bendy swords, so they were effectively all joined to each other in a circle. They did figures of eight and some very nifty footwork with a couple of somersaults and were smartly dressed in just black with orange socks. Not even a handkerchief between them.

Another work’s trip to London meant more knitting on the train, and I met up with an old friend afterwards and visited the Foundling Museum. Thomas Coram was such a dynamic and determined man in pursuing his goal of an orphanage in the 1700s. The journey home was a vast improvement on the previous. This time I shared a table with a sister and her brother who was visiting from the states, so there was plenty of enjoyable discussions on medical insurance and student loans, photography and bats.