Knit Camp

I am just home from spending the day at Knit Camp. I did not do any classes as I was unable to go throughout the week and the only class I really wanted to do was a lace class scheduled for Thursday (I think it was Thursday), but I still wanted to experience a proper knitting event. You know what? It was pretty good. The event itself has been riddled with mishaps, confusion and general chaos, but as a Saturday visitor to the marketplace I had nothing to complain about. The choice of vendors was outstanding, the venue was well-chosen and even the weather was on its best behaviour. We had a lovely time. One of my favourite moments occurred when a friend's mum showed off her mum's fair-isle work to the Jamieson & Smith people from Shetland. My friend's grandmother used to knit up swatches whenever a new Jamieson & Smith fair-isle pattern was released and as a result she now has a long sampler of pattern design spanning decades. The Jamieson & Smith people were absolutely intrigued by the sampler and many photos were snapped (as you may be able to tell from the photo). My friend's mum even had to pose holding the sampler which made us all beam.

Other great moments: helping out at the Old Maiden Aunt stall and hearing all the amazing buzz surrounding Lilith's yarns, meeting Norah Gaughan and getting terribly star-struck, catching up with a truly enormous amount of people (Roobeedoo! Dodiegirl! Janicebee! Knitsomniack! LisaFalcon! Teagenie! Celtic Stitcher! Chatiry! So Cherry! Judith! Angela! Peerimoot! Anna! And a gazillion more - sorry if I haven't linked you, but my head's swimming with names!), having a knitterly lunch on the lawn outside the Pathfoot building with a beautiful view across the Stirling valley, getting so so so inspired by Artisan Threads' stall with their genuinely breathtaking sense of colour and visual flair, and seeing some very awe-inspiring knitting projects displayed at Artisan Yarns and the aforementioned Jamieson & Smith stall.

I actually did not buy much as my knitting budget is ear-marked for other things this season (and I have too much yarn, anyway), but I did pick up some shawl pins and buttons from Textile Garden. I do love buttons and I knew from their website that Textile Garden would have a good selection (the photo shows a tiny slice of their stock). I particularly like my new shawl pin/kilt pin which calls to mind koru, but I'm very happy with my new buttons too. I did pick up a skein of un-dyed merino/silk laceweight from Artisan Yarns, but the majority of my meagre budget went towards Knitting Shetland Lace, a CD-ROM by Liz Lovick. I am getting increasingly interested in 'heritage knitting' (for want of a better word) and Lovick's CD-ROM is just perfect for me: it compares the knitted lace traditions of Shetland, Iceland, the Faroes, Estonia, Ukraine and Orenburg, has many shawl patterns and guides you all the way towards designing your own shawls.

It has been a very lovely day and yet again a big thank you to everyone who said hello. I am utterly exhausted now, but someone's almost done preparing my dinner .. then it is time to snuggle up with some fair-isle knitting before bedtime. Tomorrow we have a Ravelry knitting picnic in the Botanics with Ravelry's Jess & Casey plus Miss Ysolda. See you there around 2pm-ish?

FO: Haematite Shawl

Quickest shawl ever? Kim Hargreaves' Opal ("Haemitite") was done in little over 24 hours and it was not as though I sat about knitting constantly. I can see this shawl becoming a stash-buster (and I say this thinking of some mystery red mohair in my stash) as it was so quick and fun to knit. It was also the perfect knitting group project: garterstitch with one tiny detail to remember on each row. Verdict: a winner. I sat knitting the majority of it during The Life Craft's inaugural knit night which was really fun and relaxing.  Congratulation to Von and the rest of the Life Craft staffers for being officially anointed with an unannounced visit the very next day by Ravelry founders, Jess and Casey, and Scotland's knitting designer star, Ysolda Teague. The Life Craft is a great new addition (I nearly wrote addiction) to Glasgow's West End craft scene and I'm so so pleased by all the positive buzz the place is generating.

I may also have bought some yarn whilst there, but since I have just finished some things, I'm okay with that. I'm trying to operate a "yarn out means yarn in" policy at the moment. I picked up some beautiful Shetland 4ply by Colorimetry which is destined to become part of my fair-isle winter mitts which I am (gasp) currently drafting.

Changing

Ever played the casting game? You take one film or TV series and try to recast it using a specific criteria. One of my favourite ones was the "Lord of the Rings gone Hollywood bad" challenge. That one had Dolph Lundgren as Aragorn and Pam Anderson as Eowyn. My latest recasting involves the Inception cast. Apparently Christopher Nolan presented the idea to a Hollywood film company in 2001. So, if the project had been greenlighted in 2001, who would have played the various characters? The central character, Cobb, a charismatic action hero with underlying trauma? Tom Cruise, of course. He did Vanilla Sky around the same time and was at the height of his career. As a result, I'd say that Penelope Cruz would be a shoo-in to be the 2001 version of Marion Cotillard. Julia Stiles might work as the young architecture student, now played by Ellen Page, but I struggle when it comes to the other actors. Who would have been the 2001 equivalent of Tom Hardy? Joseph Gordon-Levitt? Cillian Murphy? It's a silly game but I have been playing it in my head ever since I saw Inception last week (which is a peculiarly fitting way to think about the film, I suppose).

And now for some knitting.

I cast on for Kim Hargreaves' Opal shawl/scarf last night. I had some Kidsilk Aura in my stash from one of my recent stashing downfalls. The colour is really interesting - it is grey but with a blue undertone. It looks a lot like wet asphalt(!) and also like the colour of the haematite gemstone. Normally I would not touch a colour like that, but I think my Scandinavian minimalist wants out at the moment.

The pattern is incredibly easy - so easy that I decided to mess it up three times by not paying attention to the instructions and just playing it by ear. I find easy patterns the most difficult ones, actually. I got back on track, though, and the shawl is zipping along merrily. I am going to up-size it slightly as a I had a brain-blunder when I ordered my needles. For some reason I ordered 8mm needles instead of 9mm .. and can I just say that the KnitPro acrylic tips are not my favourite? The actual tip of the needle is wonderfully pointy, but the needle itself feels cheap (like bog-standard plastic needles) and the acrylic makes the yarn drag a bit. If I had known, I would just have gone for regular circulars and not expensive interchangeable needle-tips.

Hopefully I will finish it today or tomorrow. Hopefully it'll stop raining so I can post a photo. Hopefully.

Points

Firstly, the response to my Larisa scarf has taken me completely aback. The pattern has been available from a shop here in Glasgow for about a week - and so far more than fifty people have "bought" a copy (pattern comes with the purchase of a ball of Kidsilk Haze). I have received so, so many lovely, thoughtful and sweet comments from complete strangers that I don't know what to say except thank you. It's really quite startling and I feel a bit overwhelmed. Secondly, I will be at the UK Knit Camp marketplace next Saturday (the 14th of August) in Stirling. Mostly I will be browsing and trying not to buy things, but I will also be helping out at the Old Maiden Aunt booth.  I know several bloggers will be attending and I'm really looking forward to meeting many of my online friends/reads. If you recognise me, do say hello! I have very mixed emotions about attending the UK Knit Camp - it seems to have descended into chaos - but as it is one of the very few Scotland-based knitting events, I have decided to tag along. I just hope that the UK Knit Camp shenanigans will not deter people from staging further events up here. It's not Scotland's fault, I swear..

Finally, I had the pleasure of meeting Ali from Jamie Possum today.  We had a great talk about sustainability, New Zealand and KnitNation. I am yet to try out her beautiful yarn, but I'm a) such a Kiwiphile and b) such a sucker for gorgeous yarn that it is just a matter of time before I succumb. I have long wanted to knit the Lorién beret and I'm quickly running out of excuses. Except that I also appear to have run out of knitting time and my stress levels are at a two-year high.

How to combat stress when my stress is knitting-related? Answers Suggestions, please.

My Favourite Obsession

People who lived through a certain obsession of mine will get a kick out of knowing I have found a pattern for Moulin Rouge mittens. Yes! Mittens with cancan dancers and a big red windmill! My life is complete! Maybe I should knit mittens based all my film obsessions. Any suggestions for Trainspotting, Velvet Goldmine or Hedwig & the Angry Inch mitts? Of course I already own Hedwig-themed yarn thanks to Ms Old Maiden Aunt. And no, I'm not asking about Star Wars patterns because there are plenty of those around.. I saw this little Ten Ways To Ruin Your Sewing tutorial over at Colette Patterns and thought it applied really well to knitting too. Here are the best bits but with a knitting slant added by yours truly:

1. Stupid self-imposed deadlines. I have been prone to thinking "I need to get this pullover done so I can wear it to XYZ." End result: I never finish the pullover because I work on it 24/7 and end up hating it. Or it ends up looking a shoddy mess and I won't ever wear it. Besides, no-one but myself cares if I wear a new pullover to XYZ.
2. The wrong fabric yarn. So you like that indie-dyed cashmere? And you're going to use it for a baby cardigan? Really?! You might want to talk to someone about that. Yarn recommendations are there for a reason. Substitute the recommended bulky-weight merino yarn with a 4ply cotton yarn at your own peril. If you are allergic to a fibre or the recommended yarn is out of your price range/you don't like the colour range, get clever about your yarn substitution. Also, using alpaca for a summer top = no-no.
3. Inaccurate cutting. Okay, there might not be an equivalent knitting faux-pas .. except if you ignore the given tension. I've tried that. I tried to knit Mr Greenjeans without checking my tension. I ended up with something which was four sizes too big. I do these things so you don't have to.
4. Winging it on a new technique. "Aha! So this project calls for a provisional cast-on? I don't know what that is, so I'll just use my normal cast-on. Oh, I need to unravel the cast-on and pick up new stitches? Where are my scissors?" Okay, so I have never done that, but that is because I love learning new techniques. But you get what I mean.
5. Expecting every pattern to fit “out of the box.” "It’s a rare person that most patterns will fit without adjustment of some kind. Sewing knitting patterns (and ready to wear) are made for a statistically average body, and chances are high that that body is not yours. I know it’s not mine. Learning to make the adjustments you need is just a fact of sewing crafting life." (quoting this for truth)
6. Being dishonest about your measurements. This is the big one for me, personally. I have a weird, distorted view of my body shape so unless I'm careful (and honest with myself) I end up knitting things that just do not fit.

Another great post is courtesy of the new Twist Collective: Shop Talk, by Sunday Holm, hits so many of the marks for me. "Requesting that the shop photocopy a particular pattern to avoid paying the full purchase price of a book." is a huge pet peeve of mine (can you tell I used to work in publishing?) as is Getting a less than warm welcome which I remember vividly from a certain defunct yarn shop here in Glasgow. Sunday's article is well worth a read and even a re-read.

Finally, Jess and Casey of Ravelry-fame and -foundery are coming to Glasgow. Join us all for a knitting picnic in Glasgow's Botanic Gardens - more information on Ravelry in the various Scottish/Glasgow groups - and a big thank you to Vonnie of The Life Craft for alerting me to this! See you there?

Coming Up For Air

I have been so busy lately that it is a wonder that I have managed to knit a single stitch. Note to self: don't take time off just before your busiest time of year; it will come back to haunt you. I have been hung up on boring and not-so-boring work-related things, that last week's relaxing jaunt to Aberdeenshire feels like it took place last year. But somehow I've still found time to cast on a small baby cardigan for a pregnant co-worker. I'm using oddments of Rowan Extra Fine Merino for a top-down raglan cardigan (I'm using this pattern for numbers but not for much else) and it is zipping along just fine. I have done so many top-down garments now that I find it difficult to think of something new to say, so suffice to say that I think it'll be done by the end of this week .. which is not bad going seeing how hellishly busy I am.

And when things calm down once more I will proceed with a proper autumn knit. I've been eyeing some gorgeous new autumn clothes in various shops. I'm head over heels with this little dress and I'm loving the fact that purple + moss green appear to be this season's musts. I never used to pay attention to clothes or fashion, but since I began getting into knitting/crocheting again, I'm noticing things that I never noticed before: necklines, shoulder construction, drape, fit, ease, fabric, fibre etc. And I feel silly because I used to feel that fashion was something I was expected to be interested in because of my gender - and I rejected this due to being a raging feminist - and now I stand around cooing over a neckline or colour.

If I ever start going on about shoes, shoot me.

But seeing the new autumn lines going into shops do make me yearn for a real, proper autumnal knit. I think it'll have to be purple (and not moss-green because some people claim green cardigans are all I ever knit) and be a really snuggly knit. Just a few more days and I can see the end of the tunnel.

You know, I might even have time to read. I caught up with Anne Donovan very briefly today and we had a lovely conversation about knitting and books. Although I do love knitting and yarn, nothing beats a good book. I miss my books and I want to return to my current read. It is one of those books you have to keep in touch with or it leaves you. And then my next read will be David Mitchell's new novel and I'll have words to share about the Man Booker Prize (as always).