Ally Pally

Two years ago (about six months into my newly acquired knitting addiction) on a whim, I decided to volunteer to help out at the Knit and Relax stand at the Alexandra Palace (aka Ally Pally) Knitting and Stitching show.

I really had no idea what I was letting myself in for.

I spent the best part of four days crocheting and finger knitting, and teaching other people to crochet and finger knit (I think I maxed out at 15 people at once) and quite literally reveling in the absolute joy of being amongst people who understood my urges to stroke yarn, in a place filled with more yarn and other fibery things than I'd ever seen in my life.

Last year I went for one day, and came home exhausted and energised again.

This year I went for only one day again and I had both a plan, and a man, in tow.

Rather than making faces, and shooing me off in the direction of North London with instructions not to break the bank manager's heart, my lovely boyfriend braved the eostragen overload and came with me. He even helped with the plan.

The plan was to meet Nikki and her boyfriend, go round the show, look at the wares, take note of amounts and costs and then, when I'd seen everything, calculate what I wanted to get and go get it.

It worked pretty well, for a couple of hours... we walked round, K took notes, I learned to felt and card, we walked round some more, then we got to a certain stand and I had a rather major falling down in the plan department.

After the major falling down, I went next door to the Fyberspates stand and had another falling down, this time in the silk hankie department. It was only a little one - 50g of silk hankies, spread across three colourways.

I managed to get hold of myself long enough to make it to the Knit and Relax stand where it was wonderful to catch up with Sue, Jane and Yvonne, who I haven't seen in a long time. It was also nice to have a quick chat with Mary-Lou and meet her other daughter (the one that *doesn't* think my boyfriend has a cute bum) and Gaz from the UK Handknitters Yahoo group (and his wonderful spindle).

With only an hour to go (and having lost the boys to the bar) Nikki and I did a quick trawl through the last half of the great hall, and at the end of the day, I headed back to the place I had my major falling down, and fell down again there, and at Fyberspates again, where I fell hard for a braid of 55% blue-faced leicester/45% silk fiber in berry colours (with a little hint of cream here and there).

I literally can't wait to show off everything I got, but the rest will have to wait, because it's for a super secret project and the time isn't quite right to reveal all.

In the meantime though, enjoy the fiber porn above :)

Tea Scarf

Since coming back from Crete, the days have got colder and more wintry, so I turned my red merino handspun yarn into a crocheted scarf.

It's about 4 inches wide and long enough to double wrap and pull through, and it's so snuggly soft it's like my neck is wrapped in a hug.

With this scarf, and the powers of rooibos tea, I'm sure I can keep the autumn chills at bay.

Recipe for a Tea Scarf

approx 200yds soft fluffy worsted weight yarn 7mm crochet hook

Row 1: chain(ch) 140 Row 2: ch3 for turning chain, then double crochet (DC) (UK: triple crochet (TR)) in each base chain. Rows 3-5: ch3 for turning chain, DC(TR) in each chain Frilly border: ch3 for turning chain, ch1, DC(TR) in (same) turning ch, *DC(TR), ch1, DC(TR); repeat from * in each chain around the entire scarf, ending where you began.

Finishing: weave in ends.

Wear with pride. Tea drinking optional, but I can heartily recommend trying Rooibos Tea.

Handspun On Holiday

About a year ago now, I went to the Handweavers Studio in Walthamstow and bought some dye to play with.

After playing with some merino, I dug out some combed Wensleydale and experimented with reds, browns and yellows, aiming for autumnal colours.

After sitting, unspun and unloved for nearly a year, I found it again, spun it up, and was utterly entranced by the result.

The Wensleydale spun like a dream, and I've got a fairly consistent fingering weight single, which I took on holiday to Crete with me, intending to knit something with it.

Turns out it's very particular yarn, because it hasn't wanted to be either the scarf I started knitting or the scarf I started crocheting, and instead it was the most happy sunning itself and looking like a ripe, juicy peach on the edge of the balcony, looking over the swimming pool and sea.

Rainbow Roving

Although I packed yarn to go on holiday to Crete, I didn't expect to pack yarn to come back with from Crete.

Then I spotted an ad for a craft shop in Chania, and in the corner of the add, I thought I saw some fibre.

So I did what any other fibreholic would do, I tracked down the place and went to see if I was right.

Turns out I was, and there were large piles of merino roving right inside the door, alongside some felted hats.

Inside, there was more merino roving, some horrible nasty wool fibre for felting and this stuff, in this and four other shades.

After finding out the price from the lovely, but slightly confused shopkeeper (who had bought the fibre for felting, and had trouble understanding me trying to explain spinning), I decided that I'd buy 200g from the (large and messy) nest I had in my hands.

Once I'd wound off and weighed 200g, there was only a small bundle left, so I weighed that too, and finding that it was around 85g, decided to buy that too.

And the entire bundle (approx 300g) of the other colourway I liked (forest greens and browns, very subtle and lovely).

At which point the shopkeeper's face fell, and he slightly jokingly (but slightly not jokingly) complained that I was buying his whole stock.

Well how was I to know he didn't have more in the stock room?

I didn't back down though, that fibre was mine, especially when I realised it was the same range of roving as the stuff my knitty swap partner had sent me, which became the first yarn I've spun this year!

I did go back a couple of days later with said yarn, since I'd taken it with me intending to knit it into a scarf, then promptly left the pattern at home in the mad panic to get everything packed.

I think he finally understood, but I suspect I'll be remembered as "that crazy British girl who bought all my stock".

Worth it though. This stuff is fabulous, and the two small balls shown in the picture above have already been turned into laceweight singles, to eventually become sock yarn.

Ravelry Swap Goodies

It took it's own sweet time to get here, but I finally got my parcel from the Ravelry fiber and sock swap.

Heather from SnerKnits sent me a lovely parcel all the way from Canada containing some bright citrusy superwash merino sock yarn, some merino/possum blend roving and some merino/tencel roving from etsy seller CopperPot, and if that wasn't enough, she also included some fabulous stitch markers, the kind that I've been lusting after on etsy.

The merino/tencel blend is so lovely that I've already started spinning it, and it's just amazingly soft and it's spinning like a dream.

Thanks Heather!

Sockapalooza Too

I was so late finishing my sockapalooza socks that I completely forgot to take photos of the finished pair before sending them across the world to Australia and the lovely Rose Red, who, with her love of reds and shoes could be a long lost soul sister.

I had great fun reading her blog and finding out about her, and as I did last year, I decided that none of the sock patterns I knew about would do the trick, and set about designing a pair of socks for her.

Using Colinette Jitterbug (purchased from I Knit London I followed the basic toe up with heel flap recipe given in Widdershins from last summer's Knittyand began to make my modifications.

A subtle eyelet line along the sides of the foot and continuing up the leg, joined by another subtle eyelet line from the heel up, and an arrow lace pattern up the back of the leg (for some reason, I couldn't get the image of seamed stockings out of my head when thinking about socks for her), topped off with a picot cuff.

Lovely.

I'm very proud of these, and delighted that she likes them and they fit (always a worry when knitting for other people who you can't make try on things).

They look fabulous on her too.

A job well done, I think.

Sockapalooza

It's been an eventful few weeks, which is why I'm so chronically late posting about my sockapalooza goodies.

I actually got these socks at the same time as I got the package I posted about previously, but when I emailed my pal to say they'd arrived, I told her I was just about to get a new camera, and that I couldn't think of a better way to christen the new camera than by taking photos of the stuff she sent.

Only, at that point, I didn't know it'd take a few days longer to get the camera than I was expecting, or that I'd then run out of time to actually write the blog post in my rush to get things organised before heading off to Crete for two weeks, or that I'd come back from Crete with an ill boyfriend and wind up ill myself while attending a wedding up North.

Anyway, the lovely Amanda from Bulldog Knits made me these beautiful diamond lace socks, and more than that, she inclulded a calendar from her home state, some Ranch Dressing mix (I got addicted when I went to Texas in March) and some truly fabulous sock yarn.

The socks fit perfectly and are really soft.

Thanks Amanda!

Pretty Skeins All In A Row

I've been hearing about Yarn Yard quite a lot lately, and finally succumbed to curiosity and went to check out the site.

Before I knew what happened, four skeins of pencil roving were wending their way to me, all ready for spinning up into (what I hope will be) sock yarn.

The picture doesn't even come close to getting across just how soft and squishy these are, or the depth (and subtlety) of the colours.

There's one varigated in shades of yellow/pale green/pale brown and sky blue/teal, one solid turquoisey/teal/blue, one solid pale green (not ordinarily my kind of colour at all but this just grabbed me, and one solid bright pink/cerise.

What I can't decide is whether I should mix and match, or try and make a pair of socks out of each skein of roving.

What I do know is that I'm really going to need to hope the birthday fairy brings me more bobbins on Friday.

Almost Done

This is sock 2 of my sockapalooza 4 socks.

My very very very late sockapalooza 4 socks. Thank goodness I have an understanding pal.

Theoretically, I should only have 14 rounds left to do, but I screwed up 6 rounds ago and it's come back to bite me.

This second sock has been very much the terrible two. I've screwed it up so many times it's just not even funny any more. It's even more annoying because the first one was so easy and quick, even though I was ill at the time. I guess the second time I got ill I got different germs. Germs that stopped me from being able to knit.

Bad germs. No biscuit.

Anyway, I'm off to I Knit London tonight for film night, in the hope that a little Hot Fuzz takes the pain of tinking away.

Wavy Warmth

I went to SXSW Interactive in Austin, Texas earlier this year, and while I was there, I was lucky enough to be able to visit Hill Country Weavers (not just once, but twice!), and amongst my haul of goodies I bought two balls of Berocco Ultra Alpaca with the intention of making a nice cuddly wrap.

Amazingly, for me, the result was actually a nice cuddly wrap (as opposed to buying yarn for a project, having it languish in stash hotel for months then doing something else entirely with it) and the yarn was so lovely that I started working on it almost as soon as I got home.

I came up with a stripe pattern that went:

5 rows teal 3 rows purple 1 row teal 3 rows purple 5 rows teal

then reversed the colour bands

Luckily for me, I had just enough yarn to make it work and finished it over Easter, on a visit to my boyfriend's parents.

I so desperately wanted to finish it so I could wear it down there, envisioning a nice crisp spring walk along the beach wearing it, that I crocheted the whole 5 hour journey from London to Devon, complete with over the ear LED light so I could continue in the dark. Whenever we drew up next to another car, I kept getting funny looks. Can't imagine why.

It hasn't had much use this year, but I dug it out this morning because it's been such miserable weather here, and this is just the thing for a horrible grey day.