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Life has happened, that’s what. I just don’t seem to have had a minute when my brain isn’t otherwise occupied with the minutiae of the Christmas season and, as a consequence, my poor neglected blog has become even more, well…neglected.
The never-ending-list-of-stuff-I-feel-I-should-do-whether-I-want-to-or-not is just about nearing completion and has left me fit for nothing but sleep, and that’s after making the conscious decision not to hand-make any presents this year…
So, without further ado, I would just like to say:
A Very Merry Christmas and a happy and peaceful New Year to you all
…I have been at home on annual leave from work – I was booking the day off for last Monday and realised that I had not had a whole week off at a time since last Christmas! No wonder I’ve felt so knackered recently.
Anyway, the whole week was duly booked and approved so I had plenty of time to do all those little things that I just never seem to get round to whilst working, or so I thought.
Lucy came home for the weekend because it was my birthday on Monday, and to celebrate we went to a little Italian restaurant that has recently opened in Newhaven – Padella d’Oro – highly recommended, if you’re ever down this way.
On Monday, in order to try and help me come to terms with the fact that I am no longer in my mid-forties (it’s now late-forties, sniff sniff) we had lunch at Temptation in Brighton, which is also where our knitting group meets on Wednesdays. Lovely home-made soup for Lucy and me, Sussex Rarebit for Bethany, followed by wonderfully rich home-made chocolate cake certainly helped take my mind off the fact that 50 (yes, FIFTY!!!) is looming ever closer…less than three years now…
The rest of the week has mostly seen me occupied with my new toy, a Kromski Harp rigid heddle weaving loom, which was a birthday present from various members of the Up Knit Creek family. At 32″ wide, it seems to take over the whole living room when set up on its stand, but will give me the flexibility to weave larger projects when I know what I’m doing (she said, hopefully). So far I have produced a six-feet-long scarf in burnt orange and multi-coloured sock yarn (shown in the first two pictures below) and am now part-way through the brightly-coloured second project, which I hope will eventually become a bag of some sort. The scarf went very well; warping was easier than I thought and the finished item is not at all bad for a first attempt. The improvements as I went along are extremely visible to me, especially in terms of colour-changes, but overall it turned out pretty much as expected.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the second project, which has made me realise just how much there is to learn about the craft of weaving.
I warped up using some black linen yarn which was chosen to give a good contrast to the multi-coloured sari silk yarn of the weft (some stuff that I spun about two years ago, if memory serves…). The warping appeared to go quite well but once I started actual weaving, it became apparent that something was drastically wrong with the tension of the warp. I cut off the 3 or 4 inches already woven, unwound the warp and tried to re-wind it more tightly, this time with my glamourous assistant, Bethany, providing the tension (in more ways than one). Again, warping seemed to be successful and the first bit of weaving was nice and even, but as it progressed, I became aware of the same problem – the warps at the very edges were really, really tight, whilst the ones in the middle were decidedly loose. Rather than cut off yet more warp and re-tension as before, I have come up with a bodge-up temporary solution in the form of rolled-up fabric wedged under warp as it goes over the back beam… it’s kinda working and the resulting fabric is OK. A quick search on t’interweb revealed a very simple and blindingly obvious way of avoiding the same thing happening again – weights on the warp threads as you wind it on! As I said, I have a LOT to learn…
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Birling Gap on the Sussex coast is receding year on year and it is only a matter of time until the hotel and other buildings there fall into the sea.
So this where I hang out on Wednesday evenings – lovely little cafe called “Temptation” in the heart of the North Laines area of Brighton. Knitting is not only welcomed, it’s positively encouraged as the owner is a knitter too. You gotta love a place that has such fab tea cozies!
Elephant cozy
mmm...loverly cuppa tea
So, pictures then…let’s see if I’ve understood this properly.
Trying to find out whether I’ve set this up properly – if so, this post has been sent from my phone. How cool is that?
As a general rule, I am pleased with the items I knit; I choose the yarn carefully, considering colours, textures, durability, suitability for purpose, etc,etc and will adapt patterns where necessary.On this occasion, my tried-and-tested methods have let me down: I have made a scarf and I just don’t like it…
I like the pattern (Baktus, if you’re interested), it was easy to knit, the pattern was well written and I like the idea of the scarf, just don’t like the scarf! I think the problem lies with the yarn, which is Noro Silk Garden Sock yarn. The colours looked great in the ball but as I knitted, they just didn’t seem to work with each other – some parts are lovely, the pink blending into purple and the turquoisey parts, but the peachy colour and the yukky green are just, well, yukky really. What also p****d me off is the knot about halfway through the skein which caused a very sudden, jolting colour-change between yukky peach and turquoise – this yarn is expensive and knots are NOT acceptable, especially not in a yarn which bases its whole reputation on long, slow, subtle shifts from one shade to the next. (Click on the last photo to see the detail)
So, I’m pretty disappointed with this scarf, and don’t know whether to frog it, give it away or burn it as sacrifice to the knitting goddesses in the hope that they will look on this poor mortal more favourably in the future.
Ideas, anyone?
…from yesterday’s outing to Alexandra Palace for the Knitting and Stitching show:
Meilenweit sock yarn
Wool tops from Colinette
2ply hemp, hand-dyed, colourway unknown
These were the main purchases but I also bought some lovely Japanese fabric in fat quarters (which I forgot to photograph), a secret birthday present-type thing (which I can’t photograph or it wouldn’t be secret), a couple of extra bits for my Knit-pro interchangeable needles and some little beads (which I couldn’t be bothered to photograph). Quite restrained, really, especially as there was so much yumminess on offer. The hemp will (eventually) become a rather swishy and swirly lightweight jacket constructed from mitred squares which I am looking forward to knitting almost as much as I am looking forward to swishing and swirling in the finished item.
The best part about yesterday though was going up to the show with my friend Sara and meeting up with Lucy in London.
Sara and I have been friends for a long time but for various reasons had drifted apart over the last few years, so it’s been really good to get reacquainted and find that we still have a lot in common. Sara had never been to the K & S show before and was pleasantly surprised by what was on offer, although she said she can’t afford to go anywhere like that with me again, as though I were a bad influence or something! As if!
My darling daughter Lucy is 21 today.
I’ve already sent her my love and birthday wishes so won’t be embarrassing her further on here, but I’d really like you all to join me in wishing her the happiest birthday ever.
Another long gap between posts – I just don’t know where the time goes.
Since last time, I have:
- Attended the second wedding in two weeks. Before this I hadn’t been to a wedding in years and then two come along at once, just like buses! Very different weddings, but both very lovely and I wish both couples a lifetime of love and happiness.
- Done some rather plain, though useful, knitting. One down, three to go, a couple may be sewn rather than knitted -pictures when complete (if I remember).
- Congratulated Bethany on her “A” level results – B for French, B for Photography, E for Philosophy. She doesn’t want to go to university, so will be starting the rather daunting task of looking for work and deciding what to do with the rest of her life.
- Taken Lucy back to Oxford. Term doesn’t start until the end of September but as she and her housemates are already paying the rent, they thought they may as well move in. The house is fine and I got to see a bit more of the city this time, but leaving my first-born so far away does not get any easier
Yes, I know Oxford is only 120 miles away, but it seems much further… - Got used to my new cooker and made some really scrummy food. I have found cooking to be a real chore in recent years, but having a new kitchen and cooker seems to have reawakened my interest. Have also been watching “Economy Gastronomy” on BBC2 which has really made me think about the way I cook and use ingredients. I’ve tried out some of the ideas and recipes featured in the programme to great effect – yesterday, for example, I bought half a salmon from the local fishmongers, poached it in white wine for dinner and have made the leftovers into fishcakes. Twelve meals from a piece of fish that cost £10.50! Also tried the basic braised mince – 1kg of mince that has been turned into spaghetti bolognese for 3, chilli con carne for 5 plus enough left to make a shepherd’s pie for 3. It’s definitely saving me money and worry, as I can cook one main dish and turn it into three or four other meals for the freezer or whatever, but it does mean that I’ve spent a bit too much of my “spare” time in the kitchen recently.
- Wasted far too much time on the ‘puter. No change there, then.
- Suffered two migraines, having not had one for months
- Grown (and eaten) lots of tomatoes. The peppers that were planted at the same time very soon succumbed to the slugs, but the tomatoes have produced lots of fruit and are so much tastier than those bought in the supermarket.
- Spent far too much time (and money) at the vet. Mollie developed cystitis last week and was quite obviously in pain and distress so off we went. Two injections and a feline happy spray seem to have done the trick as she is now back to her old self, lazing around on the sofa and eating at every opportunity. She absolutely loathes going to the vet and makes me feel really wicked for subjecting her to such an ordeal, but sometimes you just have to be cruel to be kind.
