Knitting

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Honey, I'm Home

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I am home after three days working in Yorkshire. The sun was out the first two days and our surroundings were beautiful and very rural. During one meeting I spotted a pheasant walking about on the small hill outside and predictably enough I saw plenty of sheep, cows and even deer. I do not live far from nature here in Glasgow, but it is nice when you do not get a constant background hum of traffic. And I got a lot of knitting done during meetings, in the evenings and on my epic five-hour-long train journeys.

Harmony is working up really well. I am past the first lace chart and the rib section and well into the second lace chart. It is my sort of project, really - lace charts, fine gauge yarn and a staggering amount of knitting to be done - and I'm happy to sit knitting it.

Harmony is my only project  at the moment, though, so I will need another project to keep my sanity.  I have a gazillion ideas in my head right now (most of which involve completely  insane fair-isle, thank you Ben) but I may have to stick to summery yarns right now which limits me a bit.

I have been catching up on the Eurovision Song Contest - I was stuck on a train during the first semi-final which was heartbreaking and had to rely on text messages from Other Half ("Poland's a pervy Hungarian animated short film") which was fun, but Clearly Not the Real Thing. You can still catch me talking ESC on BBC World Service's Digital Planet but for me it is now all about the second semi-final. I have high hopes after seeing energetic songs (and Belgium/Russia) making it out of the first semi-final, so I'm hoping the trend will continue with Turkey, Romania, Azerbaijan and Denmark qualifying easily with a surprise surge of love for Cyprus. I also think Armenia will do well.

Just before leaving for Yorkshire, I followed an amazing thread on MetaFiler. MeFi is a decade-old message board and one night a user posted that two friends of his had found themselves in a potentially dangerous situation - could anyone help? Newsweek has a comprehensive look at the story, but you will want to read it all unfold on the MetaFilter site. Best of the web, for sure, and proof that social networking has more to it that celebrity tweets and Farmville..

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Under the Peach Trees

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Strange week.

  • Finished a shawl. It is a gift, so I am not posting information or pictures before the recipient has opened her present. But it was an underwhelming knit: the pattern was horrible, the colour unlike me and it took me forever to finish. I know the recipient will love it because the shawl is so, so her and that makes it all worthwhile.
  • Ripped back several rows of my 4-ply cardigan because I had mistakenly thought I did not need to check the chart. I did. Fine Milk Cotton still holding up really well despite the abuse.
  • The Crowded House concert veered between being sublime (hello, In My Command), cringe-inducing (one of their new songs goes "In Amsterdam / I fell under a tram" - whatever happened to knees and kitchens? I want references to knees and kitchens back) and downright embarrassing (security guards being very obnoxious to anyone wanting to dance). And Neil Finn still sported a moustache.
  • Other Half had to go to hospital due to a dodgy knee. He is fine now, but I was all over the place for about three hours. This is love feels like: one huge pool of worry.
  • Finished reading John Buchan's The Power-House, a novella without a plot but a lot of sinister innuendos. It reminded me of Mark Gatiss' The Devil in Amber which I read a few years ago. This is not a compliment. In Buchan's defence, he was writing within the period.

I am now packing for my Yorkshire adventure. I borrowed Miss Old Maiden Aunt's Tangled Yoked Cardigan so I had something to keep me warm during my stay. Of course, my adventure coincides with the sudden arrival of summer but you never know about the British weather.. yes, all the stories about changeable British weather are true. I am also packing my 4-ply cardigan project and am pondering whether to bring a tiny one-skein project too (funny how becoming a Knittah changes your approach to packing your suitcase). I'm also charging my iPod (and if you have Spotify access, I have compiled a Spotify playlist for the journey).

I hope for a better week ahead. I have the Yorkshire adventure lined up, but even more important: next week is Eurovision week! I will be missing the first semi-final, but will be all hyped up about the contest nevertheless. Woot!

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Day Seven: Something About Yarn

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Fourth Edition is taking part in the Knitting & Crocheting Blog Week, and you can read more about that blog project here. I often get asked which is the best yarn I have ever used. I never know how to answer because, for me, the quality of yarn is wholly dependent upon what project I am doing. When I think about yarn, which I admittedly do all the time, I just try to think about it in context. What type of project am I making and who am I making it for? How will the object be treated, how will it be used and how often will it be used? Do I need to think about maintenance? In other words, every yarn has a purpose.

Many knitters shudder at the thought of acrylic yarns, but I maintain they have their place in the knitting world. Knitting for young children? Acrylic yarns (or woolblends) will seem like a god-send because they can be thrown into the washing machine with nary a thought. Acrylic yarns also have a better range of colours, they will not pill as readily and certain brands will arguably withstand nuclear holocaust (or toddlers).

I do not tend to knit for children, though, so I mostly use natural fibres. Since I live in chilly Scotland I also tend to use mostly woolly yarns.

New Lanark Aran is one of my favourite yarns. It is locally produced, is available in some truly beautiful colours and, best of all, it knits up like a dream whilst still being affordable. Old Maiden Aunt is another guilty pleasure - she dyes beautiful sock- and lace-yarns. I adore Rowan Kidsilk Haze which has a beautiful halo and yearn for a project in Rowan Lima, a soft and complex merino/alpaca-blend.  Drops Alpaca is one of my desert island yarns. I'd happily roll around in Noro Cashmere Island.  Also, I hoard Dansk Naturfiber 1-ply kidmohair/merino because I think it may be discontinued, it is absolutely divine, and I rarely get a chance to get my clammy hands on it (I used it for my Laminaria shawl). I dream of making something out of Garthenor 1-ply. And let us not forget handspun wool - I am lucky to count some hand-spinners among friends.

Meet the glittering star in my yarn stash firmament, though.

This is Färgkraft SoftBlend, a 2-ply laceweight Gotland-wool handdyed using organic dyes by textile artist Margrét Kållberg for the Färgkraft co-op in Sweden. 765 yards of utter perfection.It ticks all my boxes: rustic, organic, laceweight, Scandinavian, and dyed in my favourite colour in the entire world.

A Swedish friend of mine gave it to me last year as a birthday present. I am still trying to decide what to make from it. I feel tempted to pair it with my favourite shawl pattern, but on the other hand I also feel tempted to pair it with a traditional Scandinavian (or Nordic) shawl pattern.

I have many, many lovely yarns in my stash thanks to friends and family, but the Färgkraft 1-ply just stands out for me. I may never actually use it, you know..

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Day Six: This Old Thing...?

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Fourth Edition is taking part in the Knitting & Crocheting Blog Week, and you can read more about that blog project here. When I look back upon all the things I have knitted in the last, say, six months, there is one item I have worn more often than anything else: my Art Deco shawl.

The shawl is not knitted out of fancy, expensive yarn - just an ordinary DK woolblend which I found at a favourable price - but it has earned its keep many times over these past few months. You see, the shawl quickly turned itself into a big, cosy scarf/shawl/blanket which kept me warm during the hardest winter in Scotland for over thirty years. When it snowed, I could pull it halfway over my face; when I was cold at night I'd drape it across my legs. Now we have finally seen the arrival of spring, it still warms my shoulders and acts as a nice buffer between me and the wind.

Oh, and the colours never failed to cheer me up.

So, how does it look now?

Well-loved, it is certainly not as crisp as it used to be. Actually, just looking at that photo I feel like giving the shawl a good soak and setting up a date with some blocking pins. However, the wool is wearing very well (yes, that would be the acrylic content, I bet) and it is as warm and cosy as ever.

In fact, I think I'll just keep it wrapped around my neck.

Mmmm.

Toasty.

(I apologise for the haggard look. I'm just home from work)

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Day Five: Location, Location

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Fourth Edition is taking part in the Knitting & Crocheting Blog Week, and you can read more about that blog project here. One of my favourite places to sit and knit (or read or think) is the Kelvin Walkway which runs along Glasgow's River Kelvin. I live quite close to it and on warm, dry Sundays, I spend a lot of time sitting here. Occasionally my knitting gets stolen by a playful dog, but it is all part of the charm.

I adore this particular spot because you have your back to the world and just for a short while, you can pretend you are sitting in the middle of wilderness rather than in the middle of a large city. I have seen kingfishers, peregrine falcons, foxes, and deer here. All a five minute walk away from Byres Road, a busy shopping area.

However, this is not where I tend to spend most of my knitting time. Glasgow gets a lot of rain and blustery winds. And so I grab a takeaway coffee and head to my favourite bench in the Kibble Palace in the Botanic Gardens.

I like spending my afternoons off in here. I am sheltered from cold winds and sudden rain. The view from the bench is spectacular and the scenery changes from visit to visit. It is a wonderfully calm place to sit and knit (as long as you can mentally block out screaming children as you get many yummy mummies parading their trophies playing with their toddlers in the front part of the Palace) and nobody minds if you sit there all afternoon.

And I cannot resist showing you a close-up of "my" bench. Yes, it is wrought iron and, yes, that would be a squirrel. All the benches have the same squirrel-pattern and I think it wonderfully whimsical .. although you do get an awful lot of real squirrels hanging about the Botanics and the Kelvin Walkway (sadly not the indigenous sort but the grey squirrel).

Although I knit a lot in public (including public transport), I do most of my knitting at home. I have a sofa to myself and curl up every night with my latest project.  Blankets nearby, coffee cup full and light a-plenty. No photos, though, and while I wish I could blame poor light conditions, the living room is just that tiny bit too untidy to show anyone right now. I also quite like leaving some things a mystery ..

For your listening pleasure, I have compiled a short Spotify playlist of Glaswegian/Glasgow-based bands. Enjoy - if you live in a Spotify-enabled country, of course - these tracks are really the sound of Glasgow.

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Day Three: One Great Knitter?

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Fourth Edition is taking part in the Knitting & Crocheting Blog Week, and you can read more about that blog project here. When I first started attending knitting groups, I had no idea what to expect. I still remember my very first meet-up: I was knitting a pair of Fetching hand-warmers whilst sitting across from SoCherry and I was petrified. I worried she was judging the way I knit, that I might drop a stitch or make a mess of cabling. Looking back, this seems pretty funny - especially if you know SoCherry who is as sweet, kind and non-intimidating a person as you can hope to meet. I continued attending knitting groups despite my initial bout of knitterly panic and I was soon to realise that each and every person I met was A Great Knitter.

Usually I'm a very pragmatic person and I seldom get emotional, but I do get all gooey when I see what ordinary people like you and me can create out of a ball of string and two sticks. I see grannies knitting fabulous jumpers for their newborn grandchild; I see teenagers knitting socks in cheerful colours; I see adventurous knitters going for broke with lace or cables; I see casual knitters plugging away at a simple scarf - and I love it all. I really do. Knitters (and crocheters!), I salute you all.

Ravellers, here is a list of projects I love. I have seen so many beautiful things, so it was difficult to choose. I did settle on a theme - let me know if you guess what the theme may be..

Too easy? Here are five more favourites and another theme..

I could go on all day, but suffice to say that each knitter/crocheter I meet inspires me and makes me a better knitter too. See? I do go icky-gooey occasionally.

Don't tell anyone.