I've been wielding the 9mm needles this week. Normally, I'm not a great fan of chunky knits (apart from the speed - very satisfying!) but I was drawn to Penryn in the new Jaeger Natural Fleece & Fur Collection, not least because all of the designs are named for places in Cornwall. However, where exactly is Truru? You'd think these people could afford a proof-reader.
I love the shaping, very hourglass
I'm currently working on the sleeves, doing them both at the same time. I'm not entirely convinced of this a quick method of working. I'm at that point where I know I would definitely have finished one sleeve. Instead I've got two half done. Hmm, glass half full or half empty? Ask me when I'm done.
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Thanks for all the nice comments about the shopping. I'm always a little wary of posting too much about my purchases as I know not everybody has the same opportunities to buy yarn but I do reckon that an Ally Pally stash is an exception to this rule - hope you agree.
I seem to have managed to squeeze an awful lot of stuff into that bag...
I tried to be disciplined by buying only things that I can't buy locally and therefore can't touch before buying which actually meant pretty much of all the yarn on sale. I didn't buy quite all of it though but I had a good go.
First up are the Get Knitted yarns. I got some Lucy Neatby Celestial Merino, some Lorna's Laces Lion & Lamb, Cherry Tree Hill merino lace (yards and yards of it!) plus some Cherry Tree Hill supersock. Lots of lovely bright colours.
I loved the yarns on the Habu stand - so different to anything else. I toyed briefly with the stainless steel yarn but rejected that in favour of a huge skein of soy yarn (soysilk?) plus a huge skein of incredibly soft bamboo - both were in slightly different shades of cream, both equally fine, I was thinking of shawls of some description. The two cones at the front are tsumugi silk - beautifully soft and very fine gauge, possibly for small neckerchiefs.
I stopped by the Garthenor Organic Pure Wool stand and bought some of their 4-ply and also snapped up a little Jamieson's Ultra at their stand. Not a lot of colours there - apparently someone else had been there first!
I skipped over to the Web of Wool stand to pick up a few sock yarns that I'd hadn't seen before, some Regia silk, plain and patterned, and a very jolly self-patterning fairisle type which looked lovely knitted up in the sample but absolutely nothing in the ball. At the front on the right is a little scarf kit from Touch Yarns - she had gorgeous hand-dyed yarns on her stand.
The Wensleydale Longwool Sheep Shop always makes me feel nostalgic for the time we spent living in the Yorkshire Dales. I picked up one of their cute scarf kits and also some dyed roving to spin up myself. I simply could not get a good picture of the roving at all so here's the solitary scarf. I'm really looking forward to knitting up this aran-weight yarn - it feels so smooth and soft.
Last, but by no means least was Kerrie's stand. So great to actually meet Kerrie at long last, too bad that I had to leave before Brooke and Cameron turned up. I bought some lovely sock cashmere, one in orangey tones, one reddish. I picked up the remainders of the cashmere laceweight used to knit the gorgeous little capelet knitted by Purlpower which was on display - so incredibly light and floaty, I may just recreate (read: shamlessly copy it) myself. I treated myself to a couple of skeins of the lustrous silk, just to try out a mini Clapotis. And I must say 'thank-you' to whoever made the silk pom-poms and also to Kerrie for giving them to me. I picked them up and commented how wonderfully tactile they were and how much the Baby Bohemian would enjoy feeling them, next thing I knew they were in my shopping bag! Thanks again, Kerrie and for the cute circs. - however did you get your url printed on them so quickly?! Oh, and the last thing is the pattern for the little octopus - too cute!
I did pick up a few small size Addi Turbo circulars, also some shorter length circulars for sleeves and was pretty pleased with a little lucet from the Handweavers Studio. My girls have been after a lucet since seeing some ladies in Elizabethan costume at a National Trust house making cord. Oh, and they had a really good-looking swift but frankly, I just couldn't carry anymore!
I had the best day on Saturday. An early morning flight got me to Alexandra Palace shortly after the Knitting and Stitching Show opened, while it was still quiet enough to get around easily. I spent several hours browsing and shopping for gorgeous, gorgeous yarn and also put faces to several names: Kerrie and her charming Dad; Sue and Carole from Get Knitted; Debbie Bliss (afraid to say I gushed a little when I met her..); Nicky Epstein and Tanya from the House of Hemp.
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There were some great exhibits - the knitted room (above) was great fun. The lacemakers were impressive - so many bobbins! I did get roped in at one point to knit with some gigantic needles which were so large they had to rest on the floor as I knitted. Not sure it's a type of knitting I'll be returning to somehow.
I haven't yet been able to photograph the purchases but, as a teaser, here's the evidence. The bag was so large I had to check it on the way back....
Note the excessive amount of tape - I wasn't taking any chances with the treasure within!
Yesterday, I knit so much that I gave myself blisters but I don't have anything to show for it. I'd have posted sooner but my hands were too tired!
I drove all the way to the very end of Cornwall to see what was happening at the "Sheep to Shoulder" challenge at Land's End. The challenge was to take a fleece, spin it and then knit it into a large man's sweater. All within one day. To add spice to the challenge, there was a group of Socttish knitters and spinners attempting to do it at the same time as a group of Cornish knitters and spinners.
I thought that I'd just have a look at the project, show a little support to the local knitters, that sort of thing. I certainly didn't expect to end up joining the knitting team. Seems they were a little short of knitters on the day so I offered to wield a pair of needles if required. I was, and I spent six, solid hours knitting various parts of the sweater.
That's just a few of the knitters - the empty chair is mine!
I'd have taken more photographs except there really wasn't much time - too busy knitting! There was Debbie, Tracey, Frances, June, Gary and several other ladies over the day who stepped in for while to knit. Forgive me if you're reading this and I haven't mentioned you - I actually didn't get to meet everyone properly! Frances, who is sitting with her back to the camera on the right, won the speed knitting challenge so was a very welcome addition to the knitting team. She is responsible for many of the wonderful knitted samples in Iriss in Penzance. She's such a natural, talented knitter.
The WIP
Both teams were using the same pattern which was basically a large man's sweater made up of knitted 'patchwork' all in different stitch patterns - cables, moss, rib and a huge amount of ribbing for the cuffs and welt (Frances did those).
We were only allowed eight knitters and two sewers and, believe me, it was a real effort. Sadly (for us!) the John O'Groats knitters just pipped us to the post but our sweater was pretty much there - just a little more knitting on parts of the sleeves remained to be done at the end of the day.
An almost FO
I believe that the finished sweater will be on display in the window of Knit Wits on Causeway Head in Penzance next week. It was a great day, if slightly exhausting. The lanolin in the yarn ensured that my hands were at least smooth instead of just merely aching on the way home. The spinners were wonderful throwing us new skeins of yarns every time a call went up for "More wool, please!" Congratulations to the Scottish Knitters - maybe we need to work on some better tactics for next year?! (A smaller sweater would be a start...)
There was also an attempt to knit the world's largest tension square, or was that kniting with the largest needles? The crew of the Zennor racing gig loaned their oars plus a couple of their rowers for this possible entry into the Guinness Book of World Records.
World's largest tension square?!
I had the pleasure of attending an Elle Yarns Fashion Show on Friday evening. It was held in the hall of a local school, arranged by my local yarn shop (I think I may have mentioned my LYS before....). An unlikely scenario then for the rather glamorous young Elle models. It's always interesting to see yarns knitted up though - actual garments give us the real picture, don't they?
Some interesting designs - quite a lot of plain shapes accessorised with detailing such as beadsand embrodery, and a rather nice corsage on one wrapover cardigan. One design which stood out for me was a very cute red cabled cardigan and also some flattering ribbed garments.
I saw the big white coat which is on the cover of the new Knitting magazine (bought in WH Smith just today). It was worn by the most beautiful girl who could have worn a bin liner and still looked wonderful. Needlesss to say, it looked fabulous but all I could think was it's 199 stitches and knit for a metre and that's just to the bottom of the armholes. Plus that's just the back.....
When one of the chaps came out wearing a sweater which had was reverse stocking stitch with the seams on the outside (design feature, darling..). A couple of ladies beside me were having some difficulty making sense of it - "He's got it on inside out!" they hissed. "I don't think he does," I hissed back. When he came near us, we all grabbed the sweater to check out the exact situation, getting a good look at the inside. Everybody laughed because that's what knitters do, isn't it? We all check out the seams and the reverse side. It's just as interesting as the right side. Poor chap though, getting pulled about by voracious knitters.
Oh dear, I had so hoped to show at least one completed sleeve for my Hourglass Sweater but, sadly, it was not meant to be. The pattern instructions call for a short 4.5mm circular which doesn't currently seem to be available in UK yarn shops so I did my best and cast on using dpns.
However, the simple task of casting on 56 stitches over 3 needles seems to have been too much for my mathematically challenged brain so it's had to be ripped out. And it was going so well - apart from the stitch count.
Hopefully, I'll be able to pick up some short circulars at Alexandra Palace. My ticket is booked for the Saturday - I'm so looking forward to it!
We had a birthday here this weekend - the middle Bohemian daughter turned nine on Saturday (Happy Birthday, darling!). One of her presents was a round shiny hunk of purple plastic which KNITS! Oh, the joy....
Round, shiny hunk of purple plastic
I offered to set it up for her (as you do) and set the goal of seeing how much scarf could be produced from two 100g balls of some acrylic-y blend which was lurking in a drawer (it's around 12 feet of 4-inch tube, if you're interested). It took around an hour and a half to turn out that much stocking stitch. I'm trying to think how else I could utilise that potential.
The postman was also rather kind to me this last week - bringing some new (to me) knitting books.
I'm saving the new Harlot book until I can do it justice (pehaps when travelling to Ally Pally? Not long now!) and the knitting of socks on two circulars will have to wait until I possess two circulars of the same small size. The Rowan book was a pleasant surprise - several items that I could actually see myself wearing when I'm striding along the Cornish coast looking for seals.
See those black rock-like things at the water's edge? That's a group of seals.
They've only recently arrived on this North Coast beach and, as it's a pretty inaccessible spot, we're hoping that they will stay. Such a wonderful sight.