Woolgathering

I would love to give this a home

Sadly, (or fortunately, given the state of my finances) they won’t ship outside the US of A.

*sigh* knocks my jam-jar-with-a-pierced-lid into a cocked hat, doesn’t it?

There is not much progress being made on the Aurora scarf just now, due mainly to other priorities and to resting my sore arm. I just wanted to make a quick note to the effect that it was so worth tackling this little project. Why? Because the wrap and turn technique is so clearly explained! And I am getting loads of quick and easy practice on large needles

The wrap and turn is actually very simple. It’s amazing how much difference a small change in expression in the instructions makes.

Which all means that I can return to the Firestarter socks soon, safe in the knowledge that I only need to concentrate on familiarising myself with the strange feel of the circular needles…

I could complete the Aurora scarf in an hour or so of concentrated effort, I think. It’s not going to get it, though.

I haven’t counted it all but I have 5 skeins plus a baby one. My final skein weighs 66gms and yielded 324 yards. I have 322 gms total. Rough calculation, assuming the spinning is consistent (ha ha!)… erm, 1,500 to 1,600 yards. I haven’t sampled WPI measurements (yet)

Well, I’m impressed anyway!

WHAT can I knit? It’s 2ply, softly plyed (for the most part)

I’m thinking I might do some lacy fingerless gloves for my twin’s b’day. She’s taken to photography and they’d be useful in cold weather shooting. I’ll probably knock up a Shetland lace scarf for myself. But I’ll still have loads left over, I think.

I ponder now and again the knitting bandwagon. It surprises me how often I pick out a pattern and discover via Ravelry that it is one of the “must knit” patterns. I have seen scathing comments about these projects - the most significant example being the Clapotis. I see statements such as “I haven’t knit a Clapotis, and I never will” in the context of shrugging off the bandwagon/not knitting with the sheep. Looking at the Ravelry Clapotis page today I see 4027 projects, and the Clapotis is also in 2296 queues. That’s a lot of scarves, to be sure. But how sheepish is it, really, to be knitting one (or more) of these projects?

Perhaps I should worry.

• I knit two “My So Called Scarf” projects (1904 projects, in 2376 queues)
• I cast on two pairs of Firestarter socks (150 projects, in 712 queues),
• plan one or more Gretel hats (270 projects, in 753 queues),
• and at least one Koolhaas hat (812 projects, in 1175 queues),
• have a Swallowtail shawl on hold at the moment (872 projects, in 845 queues),
• and want to make some Jaywalker socks soon (3062 projects, in 1361 queues.)

Am I a sheep?

Well, no, I do not believe so. I can confidently state that I don’t ask the question “what is everybody knitting this week?” and then rush around to find the pattern and cast on while it’s still the hot item. No - I search patterns for something like “socks” or “hat in aran weight” and I look around for hours before selecting the one that appeals to me/fits my yarn stash/I have free needles for. It seems that often my choices are the same as many others’.

Perhaps the “must have” pattern is not that at all. Perhaps the popular patterns are ones that earn the right to be knit so many times. Maybe, just maybe, they are well designed and well written and lend themselves well to adaptation. Because that’s what knitting is all about, is it not? Every single Clapotis is an original - the yarn choice and the colour choice and the particular adaptations to dimensions etc. all add up to make something highly individual. No two of those 4072 Clapotis projects will be the same.

I know one thing for sure (several things, actually) - I love my Clapotis and I don’t give one jot how many others have knitted it. It earned its right to be in my workbasket and it is earning its keep about my neck. It was fun to knit - simple but with enough action to keep me interested for two days’ knitting. It affords me a simple pride when I look at it and stroke it and think how clever I was to choose this particular yarn, and in this shade that does exactly what I wanted it to do, and how sensible I was to make it this particular size. It’s mine. My creation. Nobody else has one just like mine. Nobody.  And it’s so good to wear and very useful with the central heating off! Besides, it is a great big world out there and four thousand Clapotis scarves isn’t a huge number really. Me and my Vibrotis aren’t likely to meet any distant relatives in the near future.

On the other hand, I did sign up to Ravelry.

Baaa!

Of course, in the old days, we all bought Woman or Woman’s Own or some such - and rushed out to stock up on yarn for the latest printed pattern only to find out there had been a run on it and it was out of stock. Not much changes. Though I would argue that Ravelry is more enabling and supports experimentation and adaptation, unlike those women’s magazines of old. I can’t recall then choosing yarn alternatives very often, or adapting in ways other than modifying a  sleeve length here, or the number of rows of rib there. I believe it to be well worth joining the Ravelry flock. The ability to look up the result of potential choices is so incredibly useful. You want to make this pattern in that yarn? Somebody, somewhere will have had a go. The facts on yardage will be there. The photographic evidence of results can be viewed. It doesn’t take long to get confirmation of your choices or to understand that it was a daft idea and the pattern looks much better in some other alternative yarn. Woman’s Own never showed us pictures of “Readers’ Results” or what the sweater looked like on normally large and lumpy bodies

Interesting stats at Ravelry - support my contention (often voiced but unsupported) that there has been a veritable explosion in the field of knitting. Now, if we could only convince all those 21 year olds who took up knitting in the last couple of years that undyed handspun from Orkney is the thing to knit!

Unraveled » Blog Archive » Who are Ravelry’s users?

The BFL, she is done. Oh, yeah. Really. Truly. All spun - at very long last.

I can’t wait to knit it up.

Much pain in my shoulder over the last week - so my self-imposed BFL deadline was not met. I did spin today, and the end is in sight. I really want to get there soon.

While resting my arm I have been making silk paper. Details over at Fairhand and I’ll be adding updates as I practise and as my arm permits. Once the BFL is complete, I will have a go at the silk hankie that Gill gave me last week. I have plans for some of the silk paper that I made this week, and I’d rather like to make a silk yarn for that project.

Spinning group worked well in my newly-reorganised sitting room, there is lots more space. My mutterings about adding new lights/tables/soft furnishings to the arrangements will have to be withdrawn, as BLOODY TESCO NO LONGER DELIVER TO THE PEOPLE WHO NEED IT MOST. Sorry about the shouting and swearing but… I am pretty annoyed right now. *fume*

Nell was very good again, and rather more outgoing - which is very good and desirable. We didn’t arrange where to meet next week so I think I may volunteer again, and keep up the puppy socialisation regime.

Today’s cake was from Waitrose - Orange Drizzle Cake. These are actually buns, easy, quick, and were luscious. Will certainly make again. I made a batch of 12. They are now all gone. They met with appropriate husbandly approval too.

I elected to try the Field of Daisies tatting last night. I would up my shuttle, created my first ring, and realised I didn’t know how to join the next part on. The pattern says to do the join, where to do the join, but not how to do the join. And then I noticed I wasn’t at that par anyway and needed to effect a chain with picots. Except I didn’t know how to do that, either. There was a link to the instructions (coo, those forceps look like a wizard idea!) but I was in my bed and not at a computer.

So, my new tatting project got no further than a ring with three picots. I did a lot of un-knotting, though. I am sure that was good practice.

This is my furry snake project, aka The Gorilla. It’s a Kaa-the-snake pattern scarf, in the mixed grey mohair that Gill gave me yesterday. It’s as hairy as a gnarly old terrier. It gave me a lot of problems yesterday afternoon, and now I don’t want to knit it.

So I kicked this one off this morning, and I like it much better

This is Aurora, a corkscrew scarf (PDF) (Ravelry) It is very high on the “just one more go” factor and will knit up very quickly because of that. A lot of fun to do - I have always been drawn to what I see as the engineering face of knitting and I love things like this (and sock heels etc) that just spring into being as if by magic. The yarn itself is far softer than the gnarly old terrier, yet it is nominally the same yarn. Fewer bits fly off  and get up my nose and, all in all, it’s a far nicer project to be working on.

I seem to have cast-on-fever. That’s not good. My arm is complaining bitterly.

Now I need to find a pattern for the third ball of mohair…

I came away from spinning today with further stash - 3 big balls of Colinette Mohair blend, from G. I have two purple mixes and 1 grey mix. I was thinking to use them as craft materials but I think I may use them for easy-knit lace projects, and make fluffy scarves to sell the next time the Sanday Spinners have a stall to fill. G also gave me a silk cap to play with - I separated one layer off and am busy turning it into roving although have not yet spun any. Can anyone tell me - is each layer  of the cap a hankie, or is a hankie something else entirely? I find silk terminology to be highly confusing.

I was hoping that the cocoon strippings that I sent away for would have arrived today. I can’t wait to play with them but I think they are for making paper and won’t find their way to my wheel in any form.

Spinning Cake today was a delicious and moist honey cake, made by M. Lovely.

I picked up G’s swift and ball winder on the way home and am going to ball my silk laceweight in the next few days.

Today was a red letter today as G’s Land Rover is broken and I picked her up to chauffeur her to spinning. Not only did I do that but I also went into the village beforehand to pick some things up - that’s the first time that I have attempted that. I parked and turned round OK and didn’t hit anyone or anything. Well done, me! I did have to give myself a stern talking to at one point “For heaven’s sake, woman - RELAX!” but I did also have a slight sensation at one point that reminded me of the way I used to feel about driving - that feeling of relaxing into one’s own space and enjoying the freedom of being alone and in control. So, I am definitely coming along on the driving front - but I do still hate that car. I certainly didn’t feel sick today or experience that marked reluctance to be getting into the driving seat. It’s progress.

Next week is spinning chez nous again, as I want Nell to experience some more company soon. What kind of cake shall it be this time? I’d like to do something new.