pixeldiva is crafty

I’ve become obsessed with fair-isle knitting, particularly using a solid and a varigated yarn, rather than two solids.

I blame Natalie and Jane for this, mostly.

Well, that, and I had no idea what else to do with rainbow yarn that’s likely to be too busy for anything other than stockinette, and maybe too loud for even that.

Luckily, I remembered that Nikki bought me some black alpaca for my birthday last year (on condition that I use it for something for me), so I dug it out and spun it up (it was lovely), and hopefully, there’ll be enough of both to make a pair of wristwarmers.

Now though, the fun part - making up the chart!

…even if it’s not the kind of learning the conference organisers expected you to do.

I went to a web conference at the beginning of the week, and for reasons I’m not quite sure, when I was leaving the house, I grabbed two balls of yarn, not just one, with the intention of knitting a pair of wristwarmers.

So, there I was, listening to presentations about javascript, when I was overcome by the urge to learn to knit fair-isle, and before I could help myself, out came the moleskine, scribble went the pen on the squares, and (very quietly) click click click went the needles, working on creating a pair of not just plain wristwarmers, but fair-isle wristwarmers.

My tension was a little tight and my stranding a little uneven til I figured out how best to wrangle the two strands, but all in all, I don’t think it was all that bad, for a first attempt.

…and for those of you who like that kind of thing, the money shot.

Well, what a week that was.

Last Monday night, as I walked into the spare room to sit down at the laptop and work on the fibrelust site, I turned, and something in my back screamed. Thankfully for the neighbours, I managed not to.

Six hours later, enough painkillers had kicked in to allow me to go to bed and get some sleep.

Five hours after that, I had to get off the tube at Oxford Circus because the pain was so bad I was either going to vomit, pass out, or both.

Twelve hours after that, I was in the Accident and Emergency Department of Kings College Hospital, London, having my back checked out.

… and the rest of the week passed in a haze of pain, pain meds and unfortunate, drug-fuelled crocheting (of which, more later).

With guests staying for the weekend and a two-day conference at the beginning of the week (none of which helped my slowly recovering back much), I’ve got quite a bit of blogging to catch up on, so I thought I’d start slowly, with a bit of yarn porn.

My first Etsy purchase, bought from All the Pretty Fibres, was turned into beautifully lofty singles, which I’m very pleased with, and have yet to tell me what they want to be.

Any ideas? There’s probably about 200 yards in that little lot.

I’m going to let you into a big secret.

I’m a big scaredy cat, and I’m scared of failing.

I’ve wanted to do something fibrey for over a year now, and I’ve been umming and aahing about it, and talking myself out of it every day, and watching with jealousy as others stood up and took their ideas forward while I came up with excuse after excuse for why I couldn’t be among them.

I love my day job - I really do - to know that what I do each day could make a difference to someone’s life is something that gives me an immense sense of both purpose and satisfaction, but it’s hard sometimes, because that job is more than a job - it’s a vocation, and that makes it so very difficult to switch off when I leave the office.

Which is one of the reasons I took up knitting, because I needed something that I could do away from a computer, because I was slowly going mad from not being able to switch off, and while it solved that problem, it also filled holes in me I didn’t know I had, and through it, I’ve found opportunities, enjoyment and friends I’d never have found otherwise, and I absolutely love it.

I get such a buzz out of knowing I can go anywhere in the world - anywhere - and find a yarn shop, and it’ll feel like home, because no matter the language barrier, there’s a commonality to the experience of being a knitter (or crocheter, or spinner, or felter, or whateverer).

I look back on the first night I went along to Angelknits, to join this knitting group I’d read about, and how I hid in the DVD section in Borders for 20 minutes before I got up the guts to go over and ask to join them and can’t believe how scared I was.

Now, after the adrenaline of Saturday has died down, I’m looking back and wondering why I was so terrified of doing this - and I really was - I was literally shaking for the first three hours of the show - from fear, from excitement, from relief when the first person bought fibre from me. I could have hugged her. I actually thought my head would burst open and explode with the emotion - mostly relief - of it all.

I had an amazing day on Saturday. I’m never going to be rich running this little fledgling (for the moment) fibre business of mine, but then I don’t need to. I’m running it to support my habit, and because it gives me a indulge even more in the alchemy that is taking the clippings from a sheep and turning it into something else.

I can’t thank Nikki enough for sharing her space with me, and giving me the chance that I’d never have taken by myself, and Gerard and Craig for putting together an event where so many people came along and the atmosphere was just right for those of us starting out on this fabulous rollercoaster ride.

I met so many wonderful people and had such a good time that I don’t even really mind that I didn’t get a chance to shop for myself.

I’ve got a lot to learn, and a long way to go before I can consider it an overwhelming success, but even a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step, and now I’m on that road, there’s no turning back now.

I’ve dropped a few hints about super secret projects I’ve been working on, and the time has come to share one of them.

For a long time now, I’ve wanted to do more with fibre and dye, after a few experiments last year revealed the joyful alchemy of the dye pot.

I’ve also wanted to see if I could perhaps make a little money while having fun (because I just couldn’t justify buying all that fibre and dye just for personal use), but I was a bit nervous about the whole “business” side of things.

Anyway, after a lot of faffing, a lot of thinking, a lot of planning and a lot of help and encouragement, I’ve actually done it.

I dyed some fibre, I’ve packaged it all up, I’ve made a website, and I’m all ready to go claim my corner of Nikki’s Fluffenstuff table at the UK Stitch and Bitch day and see if this bird is ready to fly.

Do you have fibrelust?

Cos I definitely do.

I didn’t quite manage to get all my stuff packed for my weekend away before I left for work this morning.

I did, however manage to pack the really important stuff.

Two balls of cerise Louisa Harding Kimono Angora and two turquoise, a ball of cerise Alpaca and a cake of pale pink and white mohair blend.

Anyone want to place a bet on how much of this is in it’s current form by the end of this weekend (after two six hour car journeys and with only crochet hooks packed)?

There’s a skein of yarn in it for you if you guess right. My choice (won’t be nasty acrylic).

You’ve got til about 8pm on Sunday night (UK time) to get your answers in, and I’ll reveal all then.