A skein or two

So, to begin with, here's a beauty I was lucky enough to win in a competition. It's from the wonderful Life in the Long Grass yarn company and is a ridiculously gorgeous little skein. Ha ha, Rich came home from work and I showed him my green skein (see below) and then he caught sight of the LITLG one and was amazed by it (thinking I'd dyed it!), ha ha... Erm, no, that one was done by a professional!

But I'm very, very pleased with my skeins, the yarn I used is very soft and squashy, like a little cushion (BFL + nylon sock yarn). I will probably make a couple of changes when I do the next batch, little things like tying the yarn up myself, it was a little loose and I do like a neat skein.
This will be an excellent and fun way to amuse myself creatively during the day as it's something I can easily do while the kids are around. It's interesting because although I've only been doing it a few days and have only done a couple of batches, it's already feeding back into the studio and helping me with my painting in the evenings (I've been at rock bottom with my painting mojo over the last few weeks).

Throwback Thursday

Lovely knitting from 2011, I was wearing this cardigan the other day and it's worn well over the last 4 years. It's a cardigan version of one of the patterns from A Stitch in Time, the wonderful vintage pattern book by Susan Crawford, pattern page here - It Cannot Fail to Please.

Doing dyeing

So all the hand-dyeing stuff arrived yesterday. I was excited to get started but was also pretty nervous, what if everything I dyed was horrible!?

Anyway, I cracked right on and I did it! It was so much fun. Mixing up the dyes was a little bit like mixing oils from dry pigments but not as easy because I had no idea what the final colour would be like, it was sort of like watercolours in a way but again, not as easy. Lots of fun though, did I mention that?.
I did two types of dyeing, the hand-painted sort and the traditional dye bath sort. I liked both but found hand-painting quite tricky, the sections I wanted to be lighter came out lighter in a 'the dye hasn't been applied properly' sort of way but I'll see how it knits up.

 I had to have a massive clean-up before I started anything... Our kitchen gets pretty chaotic on a daily basis.

Can you see the squishy soft yarn in the above photo? Hedgehog Fibres again (another impulse buy)! It's their Kidslik Lace and ooh, it's so lovely, I'm so glad I snagged two skeins. I'm planning on knitting a gorgeous summer cardigan with it, double-stranded,one strand Kidsilk, one strand sock weight. The cardigan is called Celastrina, it's light, floaty and empire-line (my favourite style).

The pink! The rust! The mossy tones... Just perfection. Will be back with my imperfect little skeins in the next few days, oh, and a couple of small stash enhancements too.

The 30 day knitting challenge in one post because I am lazy

Questions and idea from the hero complex via Helenknitsuk's blog (a Ravelry contact who knits amazing blankets).

What was your first finished project? 
It was a scarf for Rich that I knit with DK yarn on ridiculously thin needles, totally wrong for the yarn weight so it took ages to grow and it was stiff and starchy - too short to boot! Not fun to knit and it didn't make me want to try another project afterwards. It was only a couple of years later when I had to take a lot of time off work with a back injury that I discovered Erika Knight, crochet, and then Ysolda Teague (whose patterns made me want to learn properly).

What is currently on your needles?
A pair of socks (Vestigial by Beata Jezek) and a reverse-engineered cardigan inspired by a vintage one I saw on Susan Crawford's blog here. It's the colourwork one at the end.

Do you have any other WIPs (works in progress)?
I'd love to say no but I've been very cast-on happy this year (I usually prefer to have just one, two at a stretch). I started a version of Ásta Sóllilja in January and it was a total disaster, lots of re-knitting later the fit still wasn't right. I definitley needed to adjust my needle size as it was coming out massive even though I tested my gauge. It got warmer so I moved on to lighter projects and my Ásta Sóllilja is currently stashed away with some moth repellent sachets from Lakeland. I wanted to make a dress version, fitted like Kate's Cold Snap (without the amazing bum shaping although I'm tempted to try it).
I also have a laceweight dress I'm working on, I bought a kit from J&S, it's called Laebrack, was designed by Margaret Stuart, and is really beautiful. My dress version is based on my much loved Betty Mouat Dress and is intended to be a lighter summer version with cap sleeves.

How did you learn how to knit?
My mum taught me when I was about 6. I was given a little knitting kit by Father Christmas, I remember it had red plastic needles and green wool. I can remember knitting in the car & pulling in to our street.

How long did it take from the time your learned how to knit, to finish your first project?
What, from when I first learnt? Ha, probably about 19 years! But from cast on date, probably about 6 months.

What is your favourite piece that you’ve knit?
The Betty Mouat dress, it is perfection.

Your least favourite?
I've had so many it's hard to choose. I remember a hat by Ysolda that didn't work for me, it kept popping off my head because I'd knit it too small! Also the first hat I ever knit (Urchin by Ysolda), I just couldn't understand short rows at all... I bodged it and it did not work at all. I gave up.

What’s your most challenging project?
The Betty Mouat dress or that flippin' Urchin hat!

What fibre or yarn do you love working with?
Wool is a real favourite but I also love alpaca bend yarns, they're so soft! My favourite yarn at at the moment is Shetland Spindrift by Jamieson's of Shetland.

Do you have a favourite pattern or designer?
I've been a fan of Kate Davies for years, she's a fascinating (& funny - ha ha, but not weird funny) woman who writes a brilliant blog. She has such an original way of approaching the whole pattern writing thing, I can wholeheartedly recommend this podcast interview with Kate by the wonderful Jo of Shiny Bees for a fascinating insight into Kate's process.
Her background is in academia, she was a lecturer in (something quite particular and clever) for years until she had a very serious stroke and was unable to work, in fact her whole life changed after that stroke. Her blog then focused on her slow (continuous) recovery, she is so honest and brave (and never self-pitying) and as she began to recover she started to design more patterns (she had designed several popular patterns before her stroke). I learnt an awful lot about strokes through reading Kate's blog. I had no idea of the catastrophic effect a stroke can have and how long they take to recover from, also the permanent effects folk are left with post-stroke.

Do you have a “Knitter Hero” or someone that is just way too awesome for their own good? Do share!
See above. K.D. is the only hero!

Where do you keep your stash? Post pictures!
I keep some of it stacked and quite visible, I'd like to say that this helps me to get it knitted up but I can't say that it does to be honest. The rest is split between a couple of Laura Ashley boxes, an old bread bin and a wicker mending basket. I'd love to have a pretty glass-fronted cabinet like some knitters do but we haven't the space at the moment, also I'd only fill it and in reality, hoarding yarn (while it's very nice) does make me a little unhappy, it's just a bit excessive for me personally. I can't seem to help myself at the moment and am trying to do better :)

Do you have yarn that you love but can’t find a project for?
Yes! I have this wonderful discontinued Rowan yarn, Soft Lux. It has a metal thread running through it and a tiny bit of angora blended in too. Very soft, hopefully the angora came from well treated rabbits too. It is definitely going to be a cardigan one day.

What’s the worst yarn/fibre that you’ve worked with and why?
I'm not super keen on working with 100% acrylic yarn or superwash wool, it can be a little sweaty for my hands. Or should I say, it makes my hands sweaty? Either way... It's great for gift knits though, that way the recipient can bung it in the washing machine - excellent for non-knitters.

What was your least favourite pattern and why?
I hate anything top-down, I find it fiddly and I don't like the way my stitches look as though they're upside down. I've started a few top-down cardigans and dresses and I always end up unravelling them as the techniques annoy me.  I've also accidentally bought top-down patterns impulsively. I also dislike patterns with massive wodges of text when a small chart would suffice. I've been spoilt by working almost exclusively on Kate Davies patterns!

Have you ever had a knitting related injury?
Yes, luckily only wrist strains from knitting too much - interestingly both times I was knitting with acrylic yarn. Annoying because they stop me knitting and if I'm knitting that hard I strain my wrist then I've probably got a gift deadline! I read on Ravelry about someone's husband sitting on a dpn once, apparently it went right into his bum cheek (ouch!).

Have you ever had a project that you loved become ruined? What’s the story behind it? 
My first perfect cardigan (Mrs Darcy - all the rage at the time of knitting) which was knit in a teddy-bear shade of Rowan's discontinued Soft Lux, it was such a lovely garment. I put it in the washing machine! I didn't understand about felting but I did after that episode. I was absolutely gutted because it was the first thing I'd knit which actually fitted me, it also took ages to knit (Sept 2008 - March 2009!).



Do you knit English or Continental?
I knit a weird Georgie-style English, I don't loop my working yarn over any of my fingers, I have an annoying pick-up/drop way of throwing the yarn. I have thought about learning to knit 'properly' but can never be bothered to do it - I knit fairly slowly but I'm happy as I do it so I don't see the problem.

Do you watch films and/or listen to podcasts while knitting? What are your favourite things to knit to?
I like to knit in bed at the end of the day while I listen to The World Tonight on Radio 4, I also love the Shiny Bees podcast - that's a favourite knitting podcast of mine. I love to knit and watch films and TV programmes too although it has to be simple if we're watching a film because Rich likes to have the lights off.

Do you knit in public? Was anyone offended/incredibly happy/curious that you were doing so?
People are always happy to see me knitting and generally always comment on it. People like to tell me of the things they used to make when they knitted & speculate on what it is I'm making.
I try not to knit in inappropriate places although I'd dearly love to be able to - wedding services and wakes are the best examples. I just like to knit as I sit and chat, I can knit and look at people so I don't see the problem, it's perfectly social unlike people staring at their phone screens (I hate that). And when I say I'd dearly love to be able to knit in these sorts of settings I'm not lying, I have a real compulsion to knit and get annoyed that I've missed out on knitting time. I feel fidgety!

Do you knit gifts for friends and family for the holidays or birthdays?
Occasionally, mainly for my two sisters. I'm not crazy for gift knitting though, I would probably be more keen if I was a faster knitter.

Have you ever stricken someone off your to-knit-for list because they didn’t appreciate/take care of your last knitted gift to them?
No but I really would.

If you had the supplies (and patience) for it, what project would you start today?
I'd love to get cracking on my fair isle dress but I have to finish a couple of other things first and write up colour charts for it (I can't work from symbol charts, they hurt my eyes!). Plus, that will be a fun project for when it turns colder.
 
Have you ever made your own pattern or dyed your own yarn? How did it turn out?
I made my own pattern once, it turned out OK, could have been worse. It was a little shrug and I wore it a few times! I really want to try yarn dyeing, hence my new blog and Instagram.

Do you have a knitting book or a place where you keep patterns, ideas, size measurements? Post a picture of it!
I did buy a special knitting book from True Brit Knits, I really like using it, it reminds me of school stationary, plus it has a little ruler in the back, very useful because my tape measures never seem to be where I left them.

Have you ever been a part, or wanted to be a part of a knit-a-long? What was it? If not, why?
I've done a few on Ravelry, they're a really fun way to stay motivated through the knitting of a pattern. I like the forums on Ravelry... Funnily enough, that's how my Betty Mouat dress came about as there was a Betty Mouat KAL in March last year in the Kate Davies (Love) group.

How do you acquire most of yarn? Online retailers, local yarn shops, swaps, or large chain craft stores? What’s your favourite?
Generally online as its easier, Hedgehog Fibres, Jamieson's of Shetland and Jamieson & Smith are favourites. Having one of those smartphones can be quite lethal in terms of impulse yarn purchases.

Do you do any other crafts besides knitting? What are they, and did learning to knit come before or after learning these other crafts?
No other crafts, unless you count painting but I count that as my job.

Do you have any tips, or things that you’ve learned from knitting?
Just check your numbers. If I was a better knitter I would tell you to swatch but I don't swatch, I can't be bothered, I'd rather chance it & start with a sleeve. I knit by eye a lot of the time these days and can see when something's off and won't fit me. To be fair, I made a lot of mistakes over the years but I don't care, I still prefer not to swatch.

What’s your name on Ravelry? If you don’t have a Ravelry account, why?
It's very original, it's georgievinsun! I absolutely love Ravelry except when perverts sign up and ask me kinky questions about my knitted dresses (has happened a few times, I'm being serious, I find it gross).

My Byggleton

So this was intended to be Bygglier than it ended up. I think I got lazy halfway though and a bit overconfident that the yarn would stretch (it was really stretchy as I was knitting that lace pattern...). Anyway, long story short, after blocking, the sleeves were not going to go round my arms very well once seamed. This is typical of me, I wish it wasn't but I still slip up like this from time to time. Anyway! I didn't unravel it, I just knit a couple of stockinette strips and seamed them in, it's the sort of thing that only knitters will really notice in any case and I'm quite contented with the finished object, it feels very nice to wear (magically light yet warm) and it looks pretty nice. The pattern is Lyttleton by Kate Davies, yarn details below.

The yarn is just stunning, as ever. It's Hedgehog Fibres Silk/Merino Singles in the Pollen colourway. I swear I have got to delete my Instagram accounts and leave the HF updates list! Do you know that this year I was intending to de-stash (in the sense that I would knit all my stashed yarn rather then sell it) and I was also intending not to buy any more new yarn. I gave away all the acrylic & the stuff I didn't swoon over when I opened my yarn boxes, I spent maybe one month, possibly two not buying more yarn and then I got HF fever.. I need the antibodies.

I did add my leftover skeins of Pollen to my trade/sell page on Ravelry but changed my mind after a couple of days and put them back in my stash, I quite fancy knitting a Pollination scarf at some point, probably a bit thinner than the pattern suggests so I can get the length I need from my leftovers. So much yarn, so little time. Half the fun of knitting & collecting yarn is planning though, isn't it?

Throwback Thursday

Here's me, James and the changing bag I finally finished when he was about 3 months old. It was a bit of an epic project, took a lot of work and was all the more tricky for me to finish because of my weird knitting technique - which involves holding the yarn between two fingers and moving my entire hand each time I 'throw' rather than looping it over a finger like 90% of the rest of the knitting world! The bag is mainly knit in moss stitch so you can understand my slow progress... It's a great pattern and involves adding 3 zips, if I remember correctly it was a Berroco knitbits freebie. Here it is, Taunus by the brilliant Cirilia Rose.

Lots has changed since these photos were taken, my lad isn't a baby any more, he's starting school in September and tearing around the house demanding lollies and jumping off stuff. 'I've eaten my fruit now Mummy, please can I have a lolly?', and saying odd things like 'I aren't' instead of 'I'm not'. I love 'I aren't', I remember being about 15 and a friend at school broke up with her boyfriend whose response was 'I aren't bothered' -  ha ha!

Thoughts about hand dyeing yarn

I've recently (impulsively) decided to give hand dyeing wool a go here at home. I've been feeling increasinly disillusioned with the art world, under pressure to produce things for people (lovely people, lovely things), taken advantage of by too many art galleries & dealers, and I just want a little change, to combine two things I genuinely love, yarn and painting.
The knitting community is very different to the arty ones, it is very supportive, friendly and relaxed. For example, lovely knitters adding me as a friend on my new Instagram account, even though I only have two posts and not a lot else, simply because I've added them. Now, I know this makes good business sense, and some are dyers but it's still friendly and welcoming and appreciated. I'm not sitting here behind the laptop crying because nobody loves me or appreciates my art by the way (lots of kind people say kind things), I simply want to get more into my yarny pursuits & see if my painterly ways would translate to skeins because I am literally obsessed with skeins of yarn at the moment. Obsessed in the sense that I lie awake at night matching skeins to patterns and wishing I had more hours to do more knitting and also lying there smiling about the colours in a skein. With Hedgehog Fibres for example, I see the colours in Beata's yarns everywhere, particularly in the skies over the moor (where I live). I love to think about yarns while I'm walking although I'm not sure it's normal to be quite so obsessed with yarn. But then I think about Birthday Cake!!! I have enough Birthday Cake for a third Oblique cardigan, took me ages to decide which cardigan to knit with it because variegated yarn sometimes needs texture & lace to allow it to really shine. Oblique has it all and I can't wait to get started. But then there was a post on the Hedgehog Fibres destash page on Ravelry, of their Merino DK in the Monarch colourway (previous post, last photo), 7 skeins, enough for a good sized cardigan and destined to become White Pine by Amy Christoffers. Leftovers from the two colourways are going to become a thick pair of socks.

Anyway, coming back to hand dyeing here at home, me on my own, who knows, it could be a massive disaster & totally not work for me. We'll see, I'll keep an open mind and an open heart as they say!
One thing I worry about (and do so with my paintings too) is that I might unconsciously emulate somebody else's style. If that happens and is blatantly obvious, embarrassingly so, then it may be time to go back to the drawing board, leave it to the experts so to speak. Fingers crossed I can make it work and make something that is me and not a mish mash of my memories of everyone else's amazing yarn.

Stash

It's all too pretty.... So I got a bit obsessed with Hedgehog Fibres recently and went crazy buying yarn from them in dribs and drabs. I do have plans for all of it, three cardigans, lots of socks.

Some of it should be knit up soon. I'm just in the process of finishing my first proper pair of socks - finished one and it was literally the most exciting thing I have done in a LONG time! I was grinning from ear to ear and pretty giddy with this little sock... I have pretty cold feet, so after discovering Hedgehog Fibres I decided I would sort myself a sock drawer out! A good reason to start collecting all those beautiful skeins.