Sabbatical Part 2: The booking, packing and patterns

And so, to the most selfish part of my sabbatical. A whole week dedicated to myself and something I really wanted to do. When I first started thinking about what this might be I had Shetland in mind as I have longed to go to the Shetland Wool Week festival for the last few years. However, the timing of my sabbatical didn't work out with the festival dates and Shetland in November seemed like a pretty wet and windy option. I decided that going on an organised knitting tour would be best for me, mostly so that I didn't have to think too hard about what to do each day, but also so that I could meet other likeminded people. I really am a social person and don't much like spending long periods of time on my own - especially in a foreign country. After a bit of searching the most perfect trip came up: The Icelandic Knitter's Knitting on Ice. I took the plunge and booked it.

Planning for the trip was stressful for me. I'd never been anywhere like Iceland before and couldn't quite get my head around what I was supposed to wear each day to keep the weather out. The advice that 'there is no bad weather, only bad clothing' kept springing to mind. I didn't own any hiking clothing or equipment, but thankfully friends let me borrow key things like a super-warm coat and hiking boots, and then Sports Direct had everything else I needed to buy like a sleeping bag, waterproof trousers, base layers, hiking socks, etc., at a pretty reasonable price. Packing was then another nightmare with so many bulky warm items to fit into one bag. So I ended up borrowing a proper traveller's rucksack from my brother. Lugging that thing through London I felt like I was going on a real adventure.

For the trip I had knitted two jumpers and a hat. The first jumper was the Swirled Pentagon Pullover by Norah Gaughan. I found this in a book I bought for my Mum years ago. She has knit lots of projects from it but I always thought they weren't for me. But this one looked like just the kind of warm and cosy knit I needed in Iceland, especially with its thick roll neck. My first attempt at knitting it was a true disaster. The thing came out HUGE and looked a really strange shape. With a bit of help from my knit gurus I settled on knitting the small size, going down a needle size for the main part of the jumper and down another needle size for the pentagons. Once I had sewn it up I realised that I much preferred it without the roll neck and that I would probably wear it more after the trip, so omitted it. I really like the pentagon neckline construction and the colour of the yarn has received many compliments. If I were to knit it again I would add a lot more waist shaping and try to adapt it to be made in the round for ease of knitting.

The second jumper was a total panic knit. When the Swirled Pentagon Pullover was going so terribly wrong I completely lost my nerve and bought the pattern for Owls by Kate Davis and some New Lanark Chunky yarn to knit it with. My theory here was that if the first jumper wasn't ready in time this thick-and-quick knit would be. And I was right, it only took a few weeks to finish and both the yarn and pattern are absolute superstars. It fits me like a dream, it is warm in that temperature regulating way that wool is and it still looks great after many, many wears. This is unlike the previously mentioned Swirled Pentagon Pullover that was knit in Mondial Bio Lana which, although is much softer than the New Lanark, has pilled terribly and the jumper is looking very worn after only a month or two of wear.

The hat I made was a very last minute knit but has been the item that I have been most complimented on whilst wearing. The pattern is Cable Hat by Dora Stephensen which is a free pattern on Ravelry. The yarn is Third Vault Yarns Gytha Worsted in the colour way Bulbasaur. This was a gift from my friend Wendy at Yarnsub who saw the colour and thought of me. I seriously love the deep green shininess of it. To top it off I chose a Rico Faux Fur Pom Pom in a coral colour to really stand out. I also thought that this colour would be nice and visible should I fall down a crevasse on a mountain or glacier.

As you can see from my photos above I had THE BEST TIME. More on that in Part 3.

East London Yarn Triangle

Have you heard about the East London Yarn Triangle yet? 

Knit in Public day is coming up on Saturday 18th June and to celebrate it Fabrications, Wild and Woolly and Knit With Attitude have teamed up to bring you an East London yarn crawl, which just happens to be triangular. 

The idea is this; you assemble a group, preferably giving it a name like the Knitting Ninjas or Woolly Wanderers. Then show up together at any of the shops, grab a map which details walking and bus routes as well as some key Hackney knitting spots. Then knit as you travel between shops taking knitting in public selfies of you and your team on the way. Upload at least 3 snaps to Instagram with the hashtag #eastlondonyarntriangle and you get 10% off everything in any of the shops! What a perfect way of both spending and celebrating Knit in Public day.

When I was Knit With Attitude the other day they packaged up my purchases in one of their printed tote bags. When I got it home I realised I now had the full set of tote bags for the East London Yarn triangle - weird huh! Perhaps it's a sign that I need to assemble a team and get yarn crawling. Who's with me?

PS: Velma says "Hi".

Birthday Goodies

This year I reached the grand old age of 30 and subsequently got lots of amazing gifts. Here are just some of my favourites:

Roberts retro look DAB radio. The kitchen and garden have been alive with dancing and singing since it's arrival.

Lady Dinah's cat cafe 9 lives card. This entitles me to 9 free entries to London's first cat cafe. They have their own cats, you need to bring your own! I'm dying to go but sadly they're all booked up until October, so I'm hanging on the hope that I'll get a cancellation before then.

Fyberspates Scrumptious 4ply. Merino + Silk = Yum. I am not sure what to knit with this yet but when I do it will be squash-tastic.

TickTackToe yarn print cushion. This is pride of place on the sofa.

Bespoke necklace from my Birthday twin Shan. We share the same birthday and were born in the beds next to each other a few hours apart 30 years ago. The necklace has an 'L' and 'S' on it and feels very special. The photo doesn't do it justice.

Peace, Love, Knit Tee Shirt. Wearing it loud and proud.

The Mr. got me this AMAZING bespoke yarn bowl made by my favourite ceramics designer Annette Bugansky and Maya from Knit with Attitude. It's only one of a couple in existence so is a pretty special gift. The bowl is made up of two halves and is made to look like a big ball of yarn. You open it up and pop your yarn inside, thread the yarn through the hole in the top half and knit away without your yarn rolling off. I must confess with Flo running around I'm unlikely to chance putting this delicate ceramic on the floor at present, but there will be a time that I use it perhaps for a one skein project when she's at University? For now it is admired on a shelf, away from little sticky hands.

A friend, Katie, made me this lovely tea cosy, which has been in use a few times already. I need to drink my tea scolding hot, so this helps keep my brew at optimum burn temperature.

And finally my knit Guru, Wendy, knit me this cute back pack with cats inside and out. She uses her famous Peterson technique to do the intarsia. This technique ensures that the edges of the image are smooth and contoured instead of blocky. Cool huh? Tutorials are yet to come on her site but I'll let you know when they're up.

All in all it was a great birthday - what a lucky girl I am!

Fieldwork

May I present to you the Fieldwork Cardigan from Pom Pom Magazine issue five. I have been working on this cardigan for ages and am very glad to say that I finally got it finished!  The last push I needed was the Pom Pom magazine Christmas party which took place last weekend. I wanted to wear the cardi to the party to show solidarity to this lovely little mag. Every issue is like a beautiful coffee table book and there are plenty of gorgeous patterns too.

The Pom Pom party itself was lots of fun. There was live music, free popcorn machine, free crackers with two huge wheels of cheese, a rack of all the knitted up garments from the magazine to try on, a handful of luxury yarn stalls and a bar with some delicious mulled wine. I went with a bunch of friends from my knitting group and we started up our own little knitting corner which soon became popular with others.

Theodora Burrow was there with Alessandra Rigillo, the owner of a new yarn shop in Walthamstow called Abstract Yarns. I have made a promise to get down to the shop in the new year and will of course let you know what it's like! Theodora has a new range of knitting kits selling in the shop at the moment under the name of 'Theodora Goes Wild'. Both ladies were wearing hats knitted from the kits, aptly with pom poms on them.

Back to the cardigan; I initially meant for this to be finished in time to wear it for late Summer, but I forgot how much attention was required for lace knitting. I often couldn't keep up when watching gripping TV shows or if I had things on my mind. Not to say that the lace was hard, just that I don't do a lot of it and so it was a challenge for my mushy brain.

My only modification was the final cast off. It was meant to be a sew cast off, which is supposed to be very stretchy but I must have done it totally wrong as I couldn't get the buttons done up! I picked it back and did a regular cast off which was much better.

Buttons are wooden Hawaiian flowers. CUTE!

Knit Weekend 2013 aka Shitknits

Last month I went away on a knitting weekend with some of the ladies from my awesome little knitting group. We all needed a weekend dedicated to 'me time', a bit of a get away from it all and above all lots of knitting. And that is what we got.

We stayed in a great little barn in Suffolk and ate, drank, knit and visited a couple of nice fabric and yarn shops to round it all off. We mainly knit though. Did I mention that there was a lot of knitting?

There were certain points where the drink and the knitting converged, which produced some disastrous knitting issues and the catch phrase of the weekend 'Shitknits!' This was exclaimed each time someone messed up their pattern, dropped a stitch or generally did something wrong/ stupid/ drunk with their knitting. There were a lot of Shitknits moments over the weekend.

Although we were all busy stitching we did manage to get out and about too. We went to Fabric Rehab which just so happened to have a sale going on. As you can see there was a bit of a fabric frenzy among us, with Nicola, wearing purple above, who was simply a blur of fabric hunting. This has nothing to do with my poor photography skills I assure you.

Then we went to Twist in Woodbridge, which is a great little yarn shop, with lots of lovely stock, from the regular Rowan and Debbie Bliss to Fiberspates, Noro and Jamieson Smith. 

I didn't really want to leave.

So we stayed and rubbed some more yarn on our faces.

Finally, some fabulous skeins got bought and then wound in the shop by the lovely staff and we left with wallets a little lighter but heads full of inspiration and happiness. That large prosecco at lunch time probably helped too.

Our highlights of the weekend, apart from the shopping, were the gorgeous wood burning stove in the barn, some terrible singing to the Les Miserable DVD, a hell of a lot of cake and getting sore hands from the many hours of knitting we managed to do. The pain was so worth it, look at what we accomplished:

Katie, did a ton of work on her chunky cardigan. It was her baby.

Adela was insanely productive finishing 2 kids hats, a cowl and some teddy bear trousers. Although there were a fair few shouts of 'Shitknits' along the way.

Karen finished her chunky cardigan which was a bit bigger than expected but extremely squishy and comfy. 

Karyna started her fist pair of boot socks and knitted all this over the weekend.

 Aarti started this oh-so-cute rainbow baby blanket.

And Nicola spent a lot of time sewing up this gorgeous cardigan for her daughter. She did some other stuff too but this was her biggest victory.

Finally, I worked on my Fieldwork cardigan and even managed some sewing up. There were a lot of shouts of 'Shit Knits' while I did this as I sewed one piece on completely the wrong way round. Doh!

We had such a good time we started planning the next one before we'd even left the barn. Can't wait for Shitknits 2014.

Kiefer

Sometimes there are unavoidable forces in our life that keep us from doing the things we love the most. Late nights at work that keep us from a tasty dinner, cash spent on Christmas presents that keep us from buying that skein of sock yarn and packed, standing room only trains that stop us from knitting on the commute home. But in the last few weeks there's been a much fluffier and altogether cuter thing that has kept me from my knitting and blogging. Meet Kiefer. He's the newest addition to our family and my snuggly distractor.

We got Kiefer from Poorly Paws, a cat re-homing organisation in Essex. The lovely lady there called Deana was so helpful in choosing a suitable cat for our home and family. Although it really was as if he chose us with lots of head-butts, cuddles and purrs. Check out their website and Facebook if you are thinking about getting a cat. Rehoming is so much better than adding to the supply and demand of breeding cats for new kittens. There are so many cats out there who need your love already!

Kiefer was dumped in a box outside the vets with his brothers and sisters and was only 3 months old when we bought him home. He settled in very quickly but being a cat obviously has an intense interest in all things string and yarn like. This, along with him wanting to lay on my lap or chest every time I sit down, means that knitting and using the laptop was almost impossible in the first few weeks. Slowly I have built up his tolerance for yarn and he is learning now that I'm not happy when he attacks my works in progress. He also has realised that stepping on the computer doesn't make me too happy either, so has worked out some kind of compromise by sitting with the Mr. instead when I need to type.

Well I guess now it's official, I've finally turned into the crazy knitting cat lady.

JUST LOOK HOW CUTE HE IS!!!!

Ally Pally 2014

It's that time of year again when The Knitting and Stitching show rolls into Ally Pally and empties our pockets, but leaves us with a ton of inspiration and a big smile on my face. 

This year I went on a Sunday for the first time and it was no more or less busy than any other time I've visited the show during the week, so tactics for trying to visit during a quiet time should be thrown out of the window from now on. It was just Mum and I trawling the halls this year but I had such a great time catching up with some of the stall holder and meeting some new ones too. Here are my show highlights.

Rowans ball gown/ knit wear mash ups were beautiful and a really nice way of showing off the knits in a high fashion and sophisticated way. It's a look I'd love to rock to the office, but perhaps I haven't lost enough of my marbles yet. 

Eljo's were a newcomer to the show this year and people seemed to love their coconut buttons with a cute, shiny, enamel finish. The colours really popped and you could have found a shade to suit anything you were knitting. It's a wonder I resisted buying any! Must have been the fatigue setting in late in the day.

Bessie May were also being talked about quite a lot this year. I have to admit that I'd hadn't seen them at the show before, but their stand this year looked great with lots of bright colour choices and items knit up to their cute kooky patterns. I stood talking to the guy at the stand for ages, he nearly offered to get me a cup of tea at one point! Top marks for customer service.  

It was great to catch up with old friends like Dixie from Nichols buttons who hasn't been to the show in a few years. She had a great stand right by the coffee place in the smallest hall. All her wears were delicious as usual. 

The Milla Mia girls were showing off their adult collections at the show for the first time and it was great to hear from them how well received these have been. I have yet to invest in making myself one of the adult designs but I will one day. In the mean time I'm still totally in love with everything they do for little people!

I bumped into Sharon from Taylor Made Yarns who looked like she bought a whole bundle of beautiful things. 

And Purl Alpaca Designs had a gorgeous stand which really showed off their latest collection so well. The ladies were all very busy so I didn't get to chat for long but my collection highlights have got to be their Icon dress, the Esme jumper and Isis Tailcoat. Please go check them out they are lovely!

I went with the mission this year not to buy any yarn as I have so damn much of it sitting at home. The sign above (that I saw at the show) really is my mantra at the moment. But guess what? I failed. It was just one (bag of 10) for a too-good-to-miss price as usual. And it's in my colour of the moment BLUE! My subconscious must be on a real downer at the moment with all this blue. 

I also bought some buttons for a specific project or two and a Sublime pattern book for just £1 which i couldn't pass over. So it was a rather restrained year really. I mean this could have happened:

Not sure what happened there

So my 'Blue Period' Seems to have stunted my blogging! What happened to the whole of August Laura?  It must have been all the lovely summer that we actually had this year, meaning that I was outside enjoying life, which was of course lovely! Here's a summary of the fun had by all:

Not a lot of knitting going on in those particular photos but I promise you, it has been happening. Although all the yarn does remain blue!

There was the Baby Sophisticate for Henry which is a lovely free pattern and knitted up quickly over a couple of weeks. I have yet to see him wear it but hopefully it still fits him now the cold weather is setting in.

I used some lovely (of course vintage) buttons on it from a vintage fair I went to yonks ago. I love it when all these bits and pieces you collect come into use in the end. It makes more hoarding acceptable.

I also sewed in one of my labels which makes it look that little bit more shop bought in a weird way! Hopefully people will recognised its handmade merits.

A friend from Uni had a baby called Charlotte, so out of the leftovers from the cardigan I made an initialed washcloth. I sent it with a bar of baby soap all wrapped up in pink ribbon, but it's nice to have some things that aren't pink for a girl, which is why I thought of the blue for the cloth.

I've made these little washcloths before and they're really great little projects that don't take too long but are lovely and personal as well as being totally useful.

I have no current pictures of the (of course) blue cardigan I'm still working on from Pom Pom Magazine called Fieldwork, but I can report that I have finished the back sections and am now onto the first front section. It's slow going because I started another, you guessed it, blue project! But I'll tell you all about that in another blog post, because I'm back in the game people: BACK - IN - THE - GAME.

Cherub Dress

I finished this Cherub dress for Flo way back in 2011. She's so petit that the 18-24 month size only now fits her at 3 years old, but I was excited that she got to wear it at her cousin's Baptism last weekend. It was the perfect weather for a 100% wool summer dress! Sunny but not too hot. 

I used some tiny buttons in the shape of raspberries and some matching pink ribbon to finish it off. I think the yellow definitely needed some contrast and the pink is perfect. 

On another note, I am now a Godmother to my Nephew Henry! I'm planning on being the best Auntie/ Godmother ever and mixing cool Auntie antics with worldly teachings, which is the same thing really.

Birthday box

It was my 29th Birthday this week. I just love birthdays and managed to string mine out over a few days with visiting family, nights out with friends and a great dinner and a movie date night with the Mr. I got some lovely presents including a new baking book which I'm planning on putting to good use immediately, a knicker making kit which oddly was from the three men I work with - that's not weird right? And one of my favourite gifts was from my lovely friend Karen who knows what a knitter wants for their birthday - cute knitting stuff!

She bought me this cute, cute, cute knitting tools tin from thesexyknitter.etsy.com which comes stuffed with all the bits and pieces you need when out and about with your knitting, which is exactly how I like to roll. The best bit was that it was emblazoned with my knitting name!

Inside it has all the notions you need for any knitting eventuality: tape measure, stitch holder, 5 stitch markers, cutting tool, cable needle, crochet hook, and 3 sewing needles with varying eye size. There's a little magnet on the top of the tin to keep the sewing needles just where you want them, which is genius. And to be honest I just love that everything is teeny-tiny sized!!! Excuse me while I explode quietly in the corner.

Wool House

 

I was a lucky knitter this weekend and got to visit Wool House before it closes tomorrow with a fellow knit-mum Aarti. We started out by meeting the multicoloured sheep outside. This one looked a little glum in the snow; Aarti sympathised while I tried to cheer him up.

Once inside I was excited to meet Shauna Richardson's Crochetdermy brown bear, which I've just finished an article about for Knitting Magazine. The crochet is applied directly onto the mould of the bear, which highlights the anatomy as it swirls around the structure of the animal. I was a sight to behold and I was really glad to have seen one of her creations up close.

The exhibition is split into lots of different rooms each with it's own commissioned theme with a specific artist. The idea is to show how wool can be applied not just to the obvious, but to everything from duvets to wallpaper, insulation to sculpture. It was a real immersion in wool and made me feel very close to the sheep indeed.

Donna Wilson's nursery room was super cute with her knitted creatures snuggled into every crevice including a little bandit fox which was trapped 'in jail' beneath the cot. From the twitter pictures that have been popping up since the exhibition opened I think this has been the most popular room of the show. However my personal favourite was the 'Natural Room' by Josephine Ryan. The room included some stunning driftwood like furniture, two armchairs which looked like aran knit jumpers, a taxidermy lamb, lots of yarn, knitting needles and a series of stunning sheep paintings on the wall. While in the room we met a friendly French woman who told us that the reason there was a pile of onions on the table was because they remove bacteria from your house. You learn something new/ questionable every day.

Facts we did learn about the magical properties of wool include:

• It has hypoallergenic properties. 
• Having wool in your duvet, mattress or bed underlay is scientifically proven to give you a deeper and cosier night's sleep. 
• One sheep gives enough wool fabric to cover a large sofa and that sheep will produce that amount every year. Now that's sustainability.
• Wool is flame resistant, it does not ignite easily and often self extinguishes.
• There are more breeds of sheep in the UK than anywhere else in the world. We have over 60 different types of sheep. Where are we putting them all?

Appart from the facts we also brushed up on our skills in the craft room. Rowan were running a drop in workshop teaching people to knit and crochet and there were spinners on hand to show you how to make your own yarn using drop spindles and spinning wheels. I actually did a spinning workshop many years ago when the Handweavers Studio was still in Walthamstow. But I put my spindle away not long after that and haven't managed to pick it up since. The lovely spinners we met have certainly rekindled my interest in the craft and it was good to get to grips with the basics again.

The shawl above hung over the chair is made entirely from hand spun yarn made on a spindle and it would be lovely to think that you not only knitted something by hand but also spun the yarn for it. Perhaps one day. 

It was a great day out and I'm only sad that it's such a short exhibition as I know a lot more people who would have love to have visited but didn't get the chance. I certainly would have gone back again.

I'll leave you with a simple quote from the exhibition which really sums up what it was all about: 

Wool is a fibre for the life we lead, the people we love, the planet we inhabit.