One of my favourite pics showing two of my favourite male volunteers - note the sacrifice - one of them is knitting "Dune".
I love the construction of this jacket
The yarn is by Sirdar and the scarf took 1 ball knitted on 10mm needles. The pattern is based on one by Cat Bordhi. none of us had much of an idea about how to wear it so this lovely lady volunteered to model it.
The scarf was washed, attempted to be blocked and then gifted to my SP6 (more about that later)
I've had a good day at the show - the volunteers are a great bunch and there has been some excellent teaching going on.
I managed to have a look at some of the students work today and there are some that I would be happy to buy - one jacket's construction intrigues me so I may have to go back for a more thorough look in the morning.
This evening I had a drink with some of the Japanese knitters and met the lady who designed and made the red coats I loved at Ally Pally - she has promised to try to show me the stitch used for the "flaps" - I can't wait for the morning!
Today I had the great pleasure of meeting my SP6 giftee and handed over her final gift in person (I checked with my list mom to make sure it was ok!) - thankfully she said she liked the gifts and I won't disclose who she is until she blogs about it.
At one stage today there were 5 bloggers round the table - so I plan to surf bloglines and find out who took photos!
I owe a lot of people emails from the comments left on my blog and other email addresses - apologies - for some reason I can receive mail but no outward mail is possible from any account!
John and his prize winning shawl
John, one of our most loyal volunteers, shows off his shawl which won !st prize at the Yorkshire Show. He's also wearing a wonderful gansey knitted in wensleydale longwool.
John says that his shawl was marked down at one show due to mistakes and tried to point out one in this section - anyone see it?
... it must be Harrogate!
A total fiasco with setting the stand (what stand?) up on wednesday but today has been fun. Not as busy as other shows but it has been extremely cold and there have been serious weather warnings.
To anyone thinking of coming - there is wonderful yarn here!! There are yarns I have not seen or heard of before in beautiful colour and texture. I'm seriously tempted by some wonderful mohair by Wagtail Yarns (from Australia), next to them is some wonderful UK alpaca.
The Shetland wool brokers (aka Jamieson and Smith ) are here and the stand next but one is Jamiesons - I am so spoilt for choice. There are 6 halls of exhibits so I'll try to get round them with my camera at some stage.
Today's volunteers were good company, we managed to teach a few people to knit and crochet .
I've managed to listen to the podcast and am relieved that I don't sound a total idiot. Hopefully the organisers of the Relax and Knit will be pleased and I'm glad I got a good plug in for the Liberty's group.
Purchases at the show so far = 0, purchase in Harrogate tonight = 1 (but it was a black cashmere sweater, in my size for £30)
I'll apologise up front for the lack of links tonight - I'm tired and can't face coping with them on the Mac!
I've finished work until next Tuesday, stocked the kitchen with essentials for Matt (coffee) and now it's time to start my packing - I'm on my way to Harrogate for the Knitting and Stitching show.
I enjoy this show as it's more like an end of term party for the stall holders; I like being at home in Yorkshire and this is a show where I do get the opportunity to Relax and Knit! (see www.ukhandknitting.com for more details)
For those readers who don't know me well, I got involved in Relax and Knit several years ago and really enjoy the discussions I have with show goers and now do my best to visit as many shows as possible in the year and infect as many people as possible with the knitting and crochet bug.
Whilst at Ally Pally, I was interviewed by Marie Irshad for one of her podcasts and she's hoping to put the interview out tomorrow - so check out www.knitcast.com
Back to more important things - what to pack? Clothes are easy - lots of layers as the halls can be very hot and the weather forcast is very cold! The electrical items (laptop, palm pilot, mobile phone, cameras etc with all their leads etc take up half the room in my case. Then there are the scarves and magazines to take for the KCG.
I'm left with a dilema - do I take a big project with me (lots of travelling time and a hotel room to myself) or several small projects? Take lots of needles as no doubt I'll spend my budget on yet more yarn , patterns etc ? Or do I take a new lace project and hope I have the time to memorise it before I get distracted?
Suggestions please!
Just to prove I've been on a finishing kick this week here's the final version of the Shetland lace shawl from Wrap Style. Yarn used was Frog Tree Alpaca which was a real joy to work with.The pattern was easy to memorise and good commuter knitting, I'm already contemplating making another in a heavier weight yarn and slightly larger
First crochet hat of the year - Noro yarn from stash, pattern from Vogue Knitting on the go - Crochet hats.Made on 2 bus journies on wednesday, shown at Liberty's thursday, sold to a colleague on friday.
Debbie Bliss Maya
'tis the season for odd-ball knitting! It's also the season of freezing - hence I'm back in hat kniting mode.
One skein of Debbie Bliss Maya + One hour's journey to work = new hat.
Knitted on Thursday morning and worn at Liberty's that night - I did eventually remember to sew the ends in
Arrggghhh, been tagged (thanks, Mary-Lou!)
What is your all time favourite yarn to knit with?
Jaeger Extra fine Merino DK has to be one of the most consistent of my all time favourites but Koigu runs it a close second
Your favourite needles?
I prefer to use circulars and my favourite set is an ebony 4.5mm which I use for a lot of my lace knitting - beautiful points.
The worst thing you've ever knitted?
a white acrylic cardigan for my gran - I was about 15, had no concept of gauge, measuring etc. She work it regularly and it looked awful!
Your most favourite knit pattern? (maybe you don't like wearing it but it was the most fun to knit.)
This is easy! Jill Vosburg's Diamond Patch Sweater one of the few sweaters I've knitted more than once - you know it looks good when an unknown teenager crosses the road to ask you about it and takes notes so she can ask her Gran to knit her one!
Most valuable knitting technique?
How to knit intarsia - so that I could enjoy all of those Kaffe Fassett patterns that I did in the 90's
Best knit book or magazine?
Far too many books to mention but a select few are "Heirloom Knitting" Sharon Miller, "Domino Knitting" Viv Hoxbro and "Principles of Knitting" June H.H.
My favourite magazine is IK
Favourite knit-a-long?
I don't normally join in these as very few of the garments chosen will fit me but one that did was the Ample Knitters group making Medrith Glover's "Circumnavigated Cardigan" - it kept me intrigued all the way through
Favourite knitwear designer?
Jill Vosburg who understands the need for large women to have a real choice of well fitting items
The knit item you wear the most (what about a picture of it?)
My pink DPS seen in the blog photo - I love this so much i have hoarded enough yarn to make myself another when this one wears out. It has been worn at least once a week for the last 5 years.
Which lucky knitter gets this next? ;)
I've taken the last two days off of work in lieu of a mountain of overtime worked! I chose my time well!
Yesterday started well with my SP gift, then the arrival of my Opitec order - yarn for gifts, card making supplies and some beads.
This was followed by a very successful shopping trip in Harrods (3 skirts - all reduced by 2/3rds and a suitcase - complete with a free backpack); a huge hot fudge sundae with Nic and then a very pleasant evening knitting in Liberty's.
This morning the post man greeted me with packages from Amazon ( Handknit Holidays, Crocheted Hats and the new Yarn Harlot book ) and from Anne Modesitt (Knit for Brains t-shirt, Knitting Millinery, Confessions of a Knitting Heretic and Cheaper than Therapy).
Finally - I met up with my neighbour who had a lovely package from Miss P containing 2 balls of the most deep purple mohair to tempt me.
I'm now ready to hibernate!
I chose a good morning to stay home from work - look what arrived from my SP6 pal!
I love the stitchmarkers; the yarn is a tussah silk in a shade called "onion" and is exactly the right colour for me as my clothes seem to be swinging from purples to browns and back again!
The little chocolates are yummy and the L'Occitane shower oil, pate delice and concentre de lait are pure indulgence from one of my favourite stores!
Many thanks for getting the day off to such a good start!
I've been out of sync. for most of the past week - there are days when I've been full of energy and the weather has been awful and vice versa! There's been days when I had hours to surf the net and no-one blogged and days when my email crashed everytime I went near it.
Still it appears to be working now and there's only 900+ emails to wade through.
One of the first that I read told me of "Norma - the Notorious Nuisance's" death. I wish I could have met Norma - she lived in NJ and had fragile health but a real passion for knitting and spinning. We shared several lists together and enjoyed many exchanges - both words and gifts! A lot of the little bits and pieces I use daily for my knitting came from Norma - I used to love getting packages from her - she used to list the items on the customs label and occasionaly put the words "packaging material" - her code for some of her wonderful homespun yarns. There are still a few skeins left in the stash and they will be used for something special.
The other major event this week was the delivery of my new sewing machine (the last of the 50th birthday gifts) - nothing to show as yet as I'm still trying to get familiar with it - I did have fun though trying to find my stash box of Liberty fabric!
