The Wool Palace

I predict a riot

It was all about gender stereotyping at the Wool Palace this weekend.

While Josie and I made fairy cakes

Sam and Toby made an Airfix model.

We were all united by our loud singing along to The Kaiser Chiefs while we worked and we did get together to admire our handiwork at the end.

Thank you for all your lovely comments on the mittens.  I will do a more in depth post on them tomorrow.  For now, Toby has an urgent need to arrange an ice climbing trip and needs to send emails and so on so I must leave it at that for tonight.

Off to do some project planning I think.

Photo finish

I've finished with enough time for me to let my hair down and enjoy the closing ceremonies.

Here they are resting in the bathroom sink after a soak in some Eucalan.

More pictures and a full post tomorrow (actually tonight, as it's past midnight, but you know what I mean).

Whew, where did the week go?

I had a bit of a glitch with Typepad not forwarding the comments for the last post, so I'm afraid I haven't replied to any of them.  It's all fixed now so normal service and communication will resume.

Jill was asking about the yarnover braids and what I thought of them.  She also asked for some closeups.  Jill, I've done my best but my camera does not want to take a closeup of these mittens.  Maybe the patterning confuses it but for whatever reason it is very difficult to get a good picture.  I even braved the cold and the curious stares of the neighbours to stand out on my balcony this morning in the hope that some natural light would help.

Not the best picture I'm afraid but hopefully it will give you an idea of the finished effect.  The braids are simple to execute, a yarnover followed by knitting two stitches together through the back of the loop, then slipping the resulting stitch back onto your left needle and repeating the process until you fall asleep finish the round.  It is slow going and requires concentration to make sure you don't forget a yarnover or slipping the stitch back onto your left needle.  I think that two colours make it easier to spot your mistakes, plus I like the effect. 

Nancy Bush doesn't say you have to, but I prefer the look of the braid if you knit the next round through the back of the loop as I think the braid sits a bit more neatly, but that may just be me.  If you look at the photo above, the brown and white braid at the bottom of the photo has the next round knitted normally while the one towards the top has the next round knitted through the back of the loop and looks, to me at least, less droopy.

The cuff is definitely the slowest bit (as I think I said before).  Now I'm about halfway up the last pattern repeat before I start the finger shaping, then it's just the thumb to do.  I hope to finish the knitting tonight, which gives me tomorrow to sew ends in and block.  This is of course, if I am correct in thinking the Olympics finish on Sunday.  If they don't, can someone please tell me quickly, especially if they finish tomorrow.

Cautiously optimistic

We're just past the halfway mark now, so it looks like I'm bang on target.

One down and the next one started.  The slowest part of these is definitely the cuff.  Those yarnover braids really do eat up time. 

I'm afraid I don't have much more for you this evening.  Half term is over, back to work tomorrow.  It's raining and has been all day.  But hey, better a short, slightly grumpy post than no post at all - or maybe not?

Slow and steady wins the race

Day 5 and here's where we're at.

I think I'll be ready to decrease for the finger shaping before the evening's out, which will be a psychological boost.  I know I've technically got 8 days per mitten but I'm out on Friday evening so there'll be no knitting then and I'd rather have a couple of days in hand in case there are any major disasters.

I'm not overly happy with the tension in the area that has the nupp stitches.  It's all cream but I stranded the brown along the back while knitting which in hindsight I think was a mistake.  Hindsight didn't kick in until I was well into the patterned area so there isn't going to be any ripping going on here.  I'm viewing these as a learning opportunity, which I think fits in quite well with the United Kingdom's view of the Winter Olympics.  I know there are a couple of events in which we are in with a chance of a medal, but mostly we're happy if we come in the top 20.  I think these mittens will fall into the 'competed well' category rather than a winning a medal but I'll be happy with that.

As the mittens are most definitely not a commuting project, I started a simple sock.

The colours remind me of spring bulbs. 

I'm trying not to think about the fact that one day's knitting on the sock appears to be equal in output to five days' knitting on the mitten.

Brighton rock

Sure enough, my yarn arrived bright and early on Saturday morning.  Credit to the postman, he knocked as well.  I couldn't cast on straight away as I had a train to catch to Brighton, with Jill and Dawn.

We were off to the Creative Stitches & Hobbycrafts Show, where a good time was had by all.  We did a couple of hours on the Knit n Knatter stand, so Yvonne and the other volunteers could get a well deserved break.  Yvonne had made herself the most fabulous Knitting Olympics shirt - hopefully she'll put a picture of it up on her blog.

There weren't a huge number of knitting stands at the show, but it was a case of quality rather than quantity.  I hardly bought anything - sock yarn doesn't really count does it?

Fabulous Fleece Artist merino from Kangaroo.  They had a basket of this when the three of us descended in a sock buying whirlwind - that basket was almost empty when we left 5 minutes later.  The Regia and Opal goodies were from Web of Wool, as was the Limbo DK, destined for some thick socks for Toby.

This was the sky when we came out of the show.  Pretty isn't it?  The pier was destroyed in a fire a couple of years ago.

Despite all the sock yarn purchases there will be no sock knitting at the Wool Palace for the next 15 days (or maybe it's 14 already?).  I am concentrating on my Knitting Olympics project.

Concentrating is the right word too.  I am knitting Maimu's Mittens from Folk Knitting in Estonia as my Olympic challenge.  And boy are they challenging.  I feel like a complete beginner again.  So far I've had to master a double-start cast on, yarnover braids, nupp stitch and the whole holding 2 yarns at once and stranding without pulling too tightly.  I've also had to master the complete stupidity that led me to think that even though I'm knitting in the round I will still read the chart back and forth as if I'm knitting flat.  Here's where I'm at after 2 days of Olympic coverage.

I should point out that even though I have sat in front of the television for 2 days of Olympic coverage, that is,  2 days of the highlights on BBC2, I have seen very little of it.  I have heard quite a lot, but most of the time my eyes have been firmly fixed on my knitting.  I heard the men's downhill, which seemed quite exciting but I was deep in yarnover braids at that point.  I also heard a lot of a film we watched last night about skateboarders in the 70s but that was when I was in the middle of the whole ripping out the rows that I'd done while reading the chart wrong.  I think I'm getting into the swing of it now so maybe I can actually watch ER tonight rather than just listening to it.

How is your Olympic experience?

This sporting life

The road to the Olympics is a hard one.  The athlete must put in many hours, make many sacrifices and push themselves, physically and mentally to achieve their best.  Even then, it may not be enough.

I had hoped to be knitting some mittens from Folk Knitting in Estonia for the Knitting Olympics.  I was also going to be clever and make Folk Knitting in Estonia my Book of the Month for February, thus killing two birds with one stone.

If one's yarn doesn't arrive in time then all the planning goes out the window really doesn't it?  I suppose I can live in hope and see if it arrives tomorrow but around here what's more likely to happen is a little card get pushed through the door telling me 'The postman came while you were here but didn't bother to knock just shoved a card through the letterbox so now you have to wait until Saturday and go and join the hour long queue at the sorting office to pick up your yarn'.

So we're looking at no yarn and no good substitutes in the stash (I have checked).  Add to that the fact that my wrists and hands are protesting over my new laptop and do not want to knit and we may well be running into a problem.

Tomorrow is going to be spent going through the stash, both yarn and books, and trying to come up with a suitable project.  I need it to be a challenge but to be easy on the hands and I need it to be ready by 6pm for the start on BBC2.

I think I need an early night.

And the winner is...

Wow - so many lurkers out there!  Hello to you all - don't be strangers now OK?  And for those who asked, Typepad provides a running total of your comments.  I love my blog, but not enough to count the comments manually.

Thank you for all your comments but there can only be one winner.  So the woolly goodness goes to ...

Jessica!

Jessica I will email you shortly to get your details etc.

It seems like the postman overheard my plans to ship out some yarn.  He must have thought I was running short, as there have been some lovely packages arriving at the Wool Palace over the last few days.

This came on Saturday from Donni.

I picked up a few things for her at Ally Pally last year and she returned the favour by sending me some GORGEOUS Baby Cashmere and some Crystal Palace bamboo circulars.  Thanks Donni!  There may also have been some hazelnut creme chocolate in there but I'm afraid I am unable to confirm or deny that at this stage.

Then this came this morning.  I was actually still in bed when it arrived but I knew it would be good when I saw the gold envelope.

It's my part of the Unwanted Sock Yarn Swap, from Ali.  Ali says she doesn't like the idea of pink socks anymore.  Ali - I know a 7 year old girl who has always thought the idea of pink socks is a very, very good idea indeed.  Thank you!

You see - I do like bright sock yarn sometimes.

I am conscious of the fact that while there has been talk of 'knitting' in the generic sense recently there hasn't been much talk of what I am actually knitting.  A couple of reasons for this.  The first is my continuing discontent with socks.  This is what I have on the go at the moment.

Opal Petticoat.  I've been fiddling around with this, trying to decide what I want it to be.  I decided to make it into a pair of ankle socks for Josie (who else?).  I was pretty sure I wanted a picot edge and a little eyelet pattern.  The eyelets took a bit of work but I am happy with what I'm doing now.  The main problem I've got now is I think the leg is too wide.  I thought I could just cast on the usual number of stitches I'd do for a full length sock and just knit less length but thinking about it (after knitting most of it) your leg narrows at the ankle doesn't it?  In a full length sock this wouldn't be so obvious, but if you're going to start at the ankle maybe it should be narrower there and then I should increase for the heel and foot.  Any ideas? 

The other reason I haven't talked much about progress is that my other project is the Book of the Month project - the shawl from A Gathering of Lace.  Really, with a shawl, there's not a lot to show until it's blocked.  I've done the middle bit and am now on the ever expanding Feather & Fan bit.  It's expanded so much that the pattern round takes me about 40 minutes (I timed it during ER the other night). Lucky that only comes once every 4 rows isn't it?  Anyway, this was it a few days ago - it looks pretty much the same now, just slightly larger.

The one good thing about so many plain rounds is that it's perfect TV knitting - not what one normally says about a shawl, not me anyway.

Coming tomorrow,  Book of the Month for February, a bit late I know, but all will be explained tomorrow.  Plus, the Knitting Olympics - possible fitness problems have emerged, will I make the team?

It could be you

Thank you all for your help with the great sock yarn dilemma.  I am still undecided, but have more pointers to help me in my decision.

As a thank you for all your help, here's a little competition - or more a game of chance.  I am coming up to 1000 comments on the blog, in fact I am so close to 1000 that I am going to make it a bit trickier.  Leave a comment and if you are the 1009th lucky soul, some woolly goodness will be on its way to you. 

And no, it will not be one of the sock yarns listed in the previous post - not unless you really, really want it to be.

Something for the weekend

So I signed up to this

and have been pondering on what to send.

As some of you may be aware, I have unfeasible amounts plenty of sock yarn to choose from but it's hard to describe any of it as 'unloved' as such.  I spent some time with the stash yesterday and each time I picked something out I found myself thinking of the potential socks jsut waiting to be made from it.  However, the fact remains that I have far more sock yarn than any one person needs so some of it should be sent elsewhere (and yes, I know I'll be getting some in exchange but we don't need to dwell on that now do we?).

Therefore I am opening up the floor for comments.  I have narrowed things down to 5 possible contenders and we are going to have a vote.  Because it's the weekend and it's nice to have something fun to do at the weekend and Blogpolls are kind of fun aren't they?

By the way, I reserve the right not to go with the majority decision, just in case you think this might be spoiling the surprise for my swap partner - she may end up with something totally different, I just don't know.

Here we go.  All of these are sufficient to make a pair of socks.

1.  Grey Regia.  Functional, makes good hardwearing socks.  I do in fact love this yarn but I have rather a lot of it - no surprise there is there?  II use it to make walking socks and socks for people who I'm not sure will want to wear colourful things.

2.  Regia Stretch.  Nothing wrong with this, just rather bright.  I'm not sure who would wear the socks made from this.

3.  Online yarn in a sort of camouflage colourway. I quite like this one.

4.  More Online.  Too bright, too many colours.  I know I won't use it.

5.  Lana Grossa.  I love this yarn, it makes the softest socks.  I have a dark green pair that I love.   This colourway is a bit too bright for me.  Are you sensing a theme here?

So what's it to be?