Fair Isle Wristwarmers, Some Assembly Required

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!

Conferences Are For Learning

...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.

Back

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 Did It

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.

Getting Off The Pot

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.

Packing For The Weekend

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.

New Books, New Scarf

At the end of a week the likes of which I hope I don't have too often, it's nice to have a productive weekend.

The weekend's productivity started on Friday night, at the I Knit London film night. Although I had a project in my bag, I'd been thinking about something soft and fluffy for a couple of days, and when stash-raiding, had come up empty.

When I got to I Knit, I must have spent a full half hour stalking the shelves, trying to decide on the perfect yarn, and just as the film was about to start, I stopped ignoring the call of the Kid Silk Haze that I'd picked up and put down at least six times.

With a skein of KSH in one hand, a crochet hook in the other, and a glass of wine on the table in front of me, I started making a long foundation chain, intending to make a lengthways scarf while watching Sideways.

Somehow, after more than 200 chains and a fair amount of trebles (the crochet stitch, not the alcoholic shots), I found myself ripping it back (not the easiest thing with dark purple mohair yarn in the mostly dark) and starting over.

Without any real thought, I found myself doubling the yarn (taking the risky but successful step of using both ends at once) making a ring, then another, and then another. One flat circle followed by another, and another, and so on, and when the film ended and the lights came back up, I had six flat circles joined together and a good head start for a new scarf. Not wishing to tempt fate, I bought the other ball of purple KSH before I left the shop.

I crocheted at the bus stop, on the bus home, and for a while at home before K got home from his night out, and kept going over the weekend, til by the end of Sunday I had a pile of ends, a few yards spare (phew!) and a beautifully soft and fluffy purple crocheted Kid Silk Haze scarf.

I didn't even really stop to read the new books which the Amazon fairy brought me on Saturday morning: The Gentle Art of Domesticity by Jane "Yarnstorm" Brocket (whose domestic life I've been coveting for a long time now); 200 ripple stitch patterns and 200 crochet blocks by Jan Eaton and Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off by the Yarn Harlot (I did read a little of this in the car on the way to and from the supermarket).

I'll be posting the pattern for the scarf, which I've christened Ynez (after Santa Ynez, the area of California where Sideways is set), just as soon as I can get enough time while it's still light to take a decent photo of it so check back in a couple of days if you're interested.

Bobbin Along

I know it's a terrible terrible pun, but I'm not apologising for it, because it makes me grin, and with the week I've had, that's a much needed thing.

As were these bobbins.

When I first bought my wheel, it came with three bobbins, and I kinda thought I might need more, but figured three was enough to be getting on with. Which it mostly was, for about the first week.

Since then, I've been desperately trying to justify buying more bobbins, and specifically, high speed ones, to help me spin finer yarn.

Typically enough, in that time of self denial, I've slowly developed techniques for spinning fine yarn on the normal ratio bobbins and since they're all full of lace weight singles, it follows that having finally gotten hold of high speed bobbins that I'll have an urge to spin heavier weight yarn.

Since the odds of anyone feeling confident about what I want or need to brave the P&M Woolcraft site to buy me bobbins for my birthday without me knowing about it were fairly small, these were purchased using birthday money. Two were bought using money from my mum and the other one - well the other one is a little bit special.

Since meeting K, my lovely boyfriend last year, I've been welcomed into his family in a way I didn't expect but am extremely grateful for. I was very touched that his parents brought birthday presents for me with them when they came to stay with us a few weeks before my birthday, but was entirely overwhelmed to get an unexpected birthday card in the post the day before my birthday.

I don't tend to get birthday cards through the post so I was a bit curious. It turned out that his grandparents had not only remembered my birthday, but had sent me a birthday card - which was surprise and delight enough, but as I opened it, a banknote slid out into my lap. It wasn't expected, and it wasn't much, but it was almost enough to buy one bobbin and so instead of the two I was originally going to buy, I bought three.

I think they'll appreciate it when I tell them what I used the money for. His Gran crochets granny square afghans despite her sight failing, and his Grandpa was taught to spin as a child by his mother and the last time we met, we had a lovely chat about it.

I've got a plan too. It may not be entirely do-able given the timescale, but I have a plan to spin up some yarn and knit or crochet them both something for Christmas.

Now to find the perfect patterns.

Waving, Not Drowning

I've been dealing with quote a lot of stress lately. Some of it comes from external sources, some from within myself (I'm sure I'm not the only one who beats themselves up for not being perfect all the time).

It sounds corny, but when I think about it, knitting (and crocheting, and spinning), have literally saved my sanity over the last couple of years, and I have a kind of sliding scale of what I can do when I'm stressed.

When I'm ok or a little bit stressed, I can knit. When I'm too stressed, I can't, but I can crochet. When I'm too stressed (or too tired to concentrate) to do both, I spin.

Normally this works really well, and accounts for the vast amount of spinning I've been doing lately, over and above what I'd do just for the love of it, but for the last couple of weeks, my wheel has been broken. The screw which holds the foot pedal post to the ball bearing worked it's way loose, and I didn't want to break it any more, so had to stop for a couple of weeks til I could figure out how to fix it.

This has left me with a bit of a hole in my therapy plan, which I've been filling with frantic crocheting, most especially this current piece, a wavy crochet wrap, using up the other 5 balls of Noro Silk Garden that I bought when I was making Lori's Clapotis.

It's kind of taken on a bit of meaning above and beyond just being a wavy wrap. Every day this week I've been crocheting furiously on the way to and from work, each stitch helping (but not entirely) distract me from the worries that have been crowding in, and as a result, it's become a bit of a monument to my need to recognise that I can't be perfect all the time, and sometimes, good enough is enough.

So although this has so many mistakes I'd be almost embarrassed to show it off to anyone who knows about crochet, I love it, because with each stitch, it helps me keep my head above water.

I'm waving, not drowning.

Honest.

(... and the wheel got fixed last night. Amazing what a little squirt of superglue can do.)

My First Crochet Hook

I learned to crochet at Ally Pally 2 years ago, and since I learned with a borrowed hook, I needed to get some of my own, sharpish.

So I did.

I wandered round the show, and stopped at a stall selling Vogue crochet hooks and knitting needles. I bought three hooks - an 8mm cream one, a 7mm lime green one and a 6.5mm pale blue one.

Although I've since bought many, many crochet hooks, including the super wonderful ergonomic clover ones, that green one is the one I've used the most.

It made the Tea Scarf, it's made many a twirly scarf or a one-skein scarf (from the Debbie Stoller Happy Hooker book), and it's currently making a wavy stole and a secret scarf (yes, two projects at once, don't you just love how it can multitask?).

On Saturday night though, it had a much more important function.

I firmly believe it's never too early to get kids involved with stuff, and at 13 months, my niece is growing up very, very quickly. Quite apart from being able to run around after the cats, she's able to hold crayons the correct way up and is beginning to draw. What's even more amazing to me is that when given a box of three crayons in Pizza Hut on Sunday, she not only took them out to play with them, but also put them back in the box - all facing the same way. On purpose. Several times. This kid is smart. Certainly smart enough to hold a crochet hook and start getting acclimatised to it.

Ok, so she used it as a drumstick for a bit, and chewed on it a little too - but then, so do I.

So although she's a little young yet to start crocheting, she was at least examining it and trying to figure out what the hook was for, which, I think, is a good sign and may indicate a future crocheter, and at that point, my first crochet hook will become her first crochet hook.

It just feels right, somehow.