Winter brings many things....

Cold, snow, wet, wild weather, blustery days. dark nights, - and crisp clear icy mornings, with clear cold-as bright sunny days to follow. Winter also brings sniffles, and colds and blocked noses and sore throats. Winter brought me all of these things this week, the snow and the head cold.
Last post I was wondering if the snow would last, it did - Monday was a snow day, no work for me - the snow had come to stay. there were no buses running, and if the buses are not traveling on my road - well I figure it is not safe for me to drive on the roads. On would think with a week between posts that there would be lots to report ... but no. Today I can update what is on my needles, in my head-cold misery I went looking for something interesting to knit. You know, something that would be so interesting that I would forget that I had a cold and the knitting would just fly. I didn't quite find a project like that but I did make some progress on a project that has almost been forgotten, and tiny progress on the current sock-on-the-needles. Smallest cub has been more prolific with her knitting than I have, and there was snow ..... lots of snow - well 'lots' for here.


Earlier this year I started a Tam, something inspired by lots of colour-work Tams I had seen, but of my own design. I was all excited at using the Shetland two ply, and seeing all the lovely colours working together. Some where along the line I was distracted by other things on the needles, occasionally I would pic this up but I just couldn't find my place in the chart easily. This past week I settled in to make sense of where I was - and discovered I had mucked up the repeats at some point. I tinked back a round and tried again, no joy, I tinked another round, and then frogged back to the ribbing and started again. This time it all lined up and went as charted. I kept going over a few nights until I had finished that chart ... I didn't want to abandon it again and forget where I was all over again next time.

Last weekend I took my Owls up to dads to knit, smallest bear sat beside me and wistfully reminded me she had forgotten to bring her knitting. I was strong, I was traveling light and I didn't have a spare project with me, and although I felt guilty I resisted handing over my knitting to her but instead made conversation along the lines of 'well, I'll have to remind Dad next time to check you have packed everything'. I wasn't there when she packed, and she had the essentials, toothbrush and pj's, but not her knitting or her iPod. Poor thing. Still - as smallest cub sat beside me looking at the pattern chart for Double, her little mind was working things out. Her first real pattern project was a dishcloth worked with written instructions, but she sat and said 'Oooo, is that another way to write a pattern?' I said yes, and Small-Cub said 'do you knit the black squares with one colour and the light squares sith another colour?'. I said yes ... and there followed a conversation about how she was clever to work that out and yes she could knit something with Owls on it once we were back at home.

Back at home the Owls promise was remembered, and we cruised Ravelry looking for something with Owls. Hoot took her fancy and I showed her how to C4B and C4F. These are the first four Owls, and of course she had to wash and then Block them into the right shape, her idea not mine. This girl has clearly been hanging around knitters far too much. I showed her how to weave in ends and stitch on button eyes on the first one and after that she was on her own.

All the other Owls have been given away to visiting friends this week, so only two remain at home. I guess they migrated to new homes and flew the nest?

Bears new sock grows slowly, only because I've been sitting and drifting off into a world where I imagine no head cold more than I have been knitting lately.


And snow, now in the wider world this isn't enough snow to interrupt life. There are parts of the world where more snow than this falls and stays, and builds up, but in those places there are plans and systems in place to allow life to continue, snow plows, and snow shovels. This was the snow last Monday, and it kept snowing all day ... down to sea level which is unusual as often only the hill suburbs get a light dusting and the flat areas nothing at all. There were no buses running all day Monday, and and the police suggested essential travel only. Work like many other places in Dunedin was closed for the day, which meant I got to stay home, warm and dry and admire my snowflake-gate in a white setting. This gate has been getting admiring comments from lots of visitors this week, which I must pass on to the artists who created it.

Last post I forgot to identify a pattern, so the Grey shawl last week, it is Fountain Pen shawl by Susan Lawrence. I am snuggling it around my neck as I write.

take care
Stella

Just going around and around

I'm still here, and thank you to all who left comments or other messages to ask if every one was OK. As far as we know, our relatives and friends are safe and have all survived ... but that news comes amidst the sad news that many many are hurt and worse. At the supermarket checkout I'm often behind or in front of a trolley filled with water bottles, and crackers, I don't know if people are stocking up or shipping supplies north. The isle that is usually stocked from one end to the other with bread ... is bare. Every bread rack has a printed paper sign ... that the Christchurch quake has interrupted supplies. There are other little reminders, Bread flour is sold out, and almost every point of sale has a sign that you can add to the sale an amount for a donation to the Quake fund. Many many retailers are matching shoppers donations dollar for dollar, and outside every supermarket and bank there are collectors on street corners with red buckets collecting. It all happened so quickly that there are none of the usual fund raising merchandise, badges and stickers proclaiming you support the cause - but this time it isn't about showing off ones generosity, its about just helping. We are fine, we have enough, enough being that we want for nothing, we always kept a fairly well stocked larder, had a garden and have spares of most dry goods, and have fruit, bread, and other produce in the freezer, so I've been glad to give what I can where I can. The newish TV channels are still providing news updates every hour, all the structural engineers from Bears work have been loaned to the Christchurch office to help determine which buildings are safe, and what to do with those that are not. They apparently work in teams of three, a Structural engineer, a Social worker and a Earthquake commission agent. Bear specialty is civil, not structural .. so we get to have him around. The cubs school has openly offered to include any Christchurch 'refugee children' in its classes for however long they need, and my work has made a similar offer to the match for our school in Christchurch. Many parents have arranged for their children to stay with relatives in other centers while they clean up.


In the meanwhile I'm knitting and there is a finished project and progress. The finished project I really can't share, more than this .. its a surprise, and group project and the time is not right yet. Soon all can be revealed but for now all I can say is that the now finished work returned to my house for blocking. It is now blocked, and flat and very very nice, in fact so nice it would be nearly enough to temp me to ..... so I might get given one myself from this group.
The finished item will be off to the last person in the chain Monday .... and then it is just a question of waiting until the right time, before I can reveal more.

The only other project getting needle time right now is the lace band around the Shetland blanket. Because I have already knit (and frogged) this section I feel obliged to work on this until it is up to the point before I frogged, but obligated in a good way. There are several good things that happen when one re-knits a pattern, the little things that occur to include but for which it is often too late ... get to be incorporated the second time around. This time I'm knitting the lace as garter, not stocking stitch, the green rows help remind me to purl. And I took the time to chart out the corner increases. This gave me space to play and add in a few lace repeats. When I knit this the first time the corner ended up very solid .. adding in lace motifs to match that in the band will just lighten it a little.

Row 16 of 26, 10 more rounds to go, and there will be 174 stitches per side when I'm done ........ this may take a while. I suspect the colourwork Tam will call out to me before too much time has passed.

Take care ...
na Stella

Not much to show ...

I've been knitting round and round in grey, and working on a chart for my colour-work tam. I did finish spinning 100g of dyed Perendale. Our students arrived back this week, and today all the staff teaching in Fashion gave a mini Pecha Kucha, 10 slides each lecturer and 20 seconds to talk each about each slide. I made sure most of mine were about knitting. Then all our fashion students from all years of the programs are given a three day Project runway style team project. Three times I was asked if I 'happen to have any knitting needles' ? Score!

When I knit things using other peoples patterns - the process is straightforward. I select a pattern, and some yarn, think about colours and go for it. Oh - with me there are usually little changes where I make it differently, or big changes ... but the process is quick. When I knit things that I 'design' - the process is a whole lot different. First there is the research, the stage where I seem to spend a lot of time looking and recording ideas and options and possible directions, and think about all that I find. Then the process transitions to one of planning, and experimentation, and testing, and deciding .. and all that takes time. Since my last post I have been looking at motifs that could be used in my Tam, I've been looking at Tams, and hats and colour work, I've been looking at all sorts of colour combinations and what sorts of arrangements of colours look best to me - and I've been thinking about why they look best. The Lecturer in me asks the question : "What makes it work?". So there has been a lot of dealing with knitting, but really only a few rounds knit. But I'm ready to start, I think I have a design that will work with the colours I have and look good ... only time and knitting will tell. I felt like a student this time, as the knitters study group meets on Saturday ... for the second workshop on knitting a Tam, and I had only completed my ribbing.

Which leaves only the spinning, this once was a hand dyed roving of perindale ... now it is a 100g of singles ready to ply. The next stage is to wind this into a center pull ball, after it has sat for a few days to relax. My plan is to ply from both ends of the centre pull ball so I get a 2ply yarn, and after that I'm not so sure .....I really should be knitting what I spin, as I do enjoy knitting with handspun.

Oh and if you are looking for a good read, check out Vanda Symons latest book, Bound, it has only been out just over a week and is already at the top of the New Zealand Adult Fiction bestseller list! I can't tell you how it ends .. 'cause I've not finished it yet.

so .. perhaps I will have more to report next post?
Until then, happy knitting
na Stella

Sometimes when something is finished ...

I almost can't believe that I made it. Especially when the 'something' is a project that wasn't particularly planed in full before it began. Today there are finished blocking photos of one of those kinds of projects, the Linen basket liner, and I introduce a new project - colour-work. Every time I start knitting colour-work .. I wonder why I don't knit more of it, and this time I'm knitting in Shetland yarn, and I love it, for lots of reason.

First up, the finished Linen Basket liner project, well I'm calling it that but really it will be used to line bowls, the deep pottery kind that I toss warm bread buns and muffins into when serving. Or toast, or croissants, or bagels, or fruit toast ... or, well you know those sorts of bakery things that are best served fresh and warm. I'm so pleased with this, there are a few things that I would change if I was to knit it again, I think the outer pattern of horse-lace really needs another repeat around as it was a bit stretched when I blocked it. Once I started working the edging I was hooked, seeing each repeat cast of another section of the work was addictive. I neglected my other knitting projects (and some household chores) to sit and knit. I took it and its chart to the local school playground while supervising play, I chose meals that were almost instant and had almost no clean up, I made choices that maximized my knitting time - just to have it done. The edging I chose was the Traditional Scalloped Edging from page 54 of Sharon Millers Heirloom Knitting. The middle band was 3 repeats of Horse shoe from page 67 of the same book, but I increased 2 stitches each 'horse-shoe' each repeat to allow for the increasing diameter. That worked really well.

Then I 'threw' it in the washing machine, on a fairly heavy duty wash, this is linen and I know from linen tea towels that linen matures with a few washes. It softens and relaxes and becomes unbelievably nice to handle ... so I made up for the relaxed attitude to housework by tossing in all the dirty washing that needed doing. Then I pined it out, I used a tape measure pined at the center to make sure I was pinning all the points equidistant. I pinned the quarters first, then the midpoints between those, then the midpoints between that, and so on. I left it to dry overnight. I kept finding excuses to walk past the blocking board and admire it, this project impresses me, I love that I have knit it, love I have finished it, love I can use it, and love that I 'made-it-up' rather than worked to a predetermined pattern. At the same time I almost can't believe that the scrunched up bunch of loops on my needles has turned into this.

This morning it was pretty much dry, but I've popped it out in the sun .... just to set and finalize the blocking. Latter I'll carefully remove the pins and polish it with a hot iron. I know linen fabric likes a hot iron polish, so assume that linen knitting would like the same.

With that all done, and blocking I returned to one of my 'other' lace projects, the replacement blanket. This is for me, I suspect it will become a kind of hap-shawl, something to wrap around me when I'm at home and cold. I had frogged the first carefully planned and charted lace and selected another. This lace feels like a better match for the yarn and colour and gauge. I am finding most of my 'lace' in Sharon Miller's book at the moment, this time Center Design of Bead Lozenges from page 55.

And the newest project, is a colourwork tam. I'm working with my little stash of shetland 2 ply that I brought back, and loving it. In New Zealand - home of sheep, it is surprisingly difficult to source yarn for colourwork. In retail shops there is usually a selection including a blue, a red, an orange, a green, a yellow, a pink, a cream, and a white, perhaps sometimes a black or a purple - but pretty much the standard colours that are in 12 set of colouring pencils. To top that off, the most stocked weigh of yarn in shops here is DK, or something between Aran and Worsted - hardly a colourwork wonderland. You can buy a skein at a time .. from Indie dyers, but have to have forsight to collect over time colours that will work together. I lusted after the huge range of shades that was available in ranges specifically designed for colourwork. Then when I got to choose - it was almost too much .. but I'm happy with the colours I brought back and have made a start on a Tam. I-cord followed by corrugated rib with the knits shading from purple to pale grey ... I like it so far. This is part of the Knitters Study Group project, and in 5 weeks I need to have this at the stage of decreasing for the crown ... somehow I don't think that will be a problem.

There are a couple of other abandoned projects, true UFO's lurking in my knit basket. Both of which are going to be frogged this week. The latest Piecework arrived, and I like the Snowflake scarf in that much more than the one I'm knitting so that seems to be a sign to stop knitting something I don't enjoy and start again with something more tempting.

So .. I guess that I should go a bake something to fill my linen basket liner with?
Take care
Stella

Done, do__ and gone...

Today in the post I've got one thing done, finished and blocked and drying out side in the wonderful sunshine we have lots of right now, one thing do__ (which is almost done - all bar the seaming up), and one thing missing. A knit thing ..... it happens.
During the week I had a day away from work and went out to Mosgiel to the Taieri Creative Fibre open day, which was a nice way to spend a day - more so as I bought a single raffle ticket on the way in and won a lovely skein of yarn - yum. I also had one of the loveliest parcel ever of things I had bought ever arrive, truly it was beautiful - and if ever I am stuck for a gift .. and have the foresight to order in time for delivery - I'll be buying from them.

Done, time two that means both mittens are done, ends woven in, blocked a done - the Cat mittens, by Jorid Linvik, which may or not fit Toby - seems that cub has had a growth spurt since I started them all of a month ago on the 24th of August. Perhaps the blocking will result in a little loosening and they may fit - but its spring here and he probably won't fit them next winter. Oh well, the smaller cub scores .. and he dose not seem to upset. I did make both the thumbs a little longer than the pattern suggest ... guess my cubs are lanky and long.

And here is the very nearly almost done project, all knit up bar the seaming and edging. I did have enough yarn in the end, which is good because it was vintage sale yarn and there is no more in the same colour. I was a little worried, as the last skein was only four strands not the six in the other 10 skeins, but I figured that no one would notice a slightly thinner patch once it was all sewn up and edged. I've told the cubs that once I'm done with blogging this morning and their rooms are tidy - they can help me do the largest jig saw in the house and fit all the pieces together - parents get to do that, trick their cubs into work by making it fun. Besides it will be good for their spatial problem solving thinking skills - a whole body puzzle.

This is the yarn I scored at the Taieri open day, Italian superwash laceweight Merino in a beautiful deep ruby. This was provided by Pollyknits .. who had a stall their. I was the third or fourth prize drawn and it was a case of presenting ones winning raffle ticket and selecting the prize one wanted. I could not believe my luck, the three first prizes to be collected were all plastic buckets of groceries ... so I got to score this yarn!

On Wednesday - the same day as the open day - I arrived home to find a lovely parcel address to the 'wonderful knitknitfrog'. Inside was what would have to be the nicest wrapping I have ever seen from a shop I've ordered from - inside was Violette Ink from J. Herbin and a Seyes ruled notebook. Each was wrapped up separate - just in case the ink misbehaved, but it didn't. When you place an order with Jumping Tangents they have a space on the order form to let them know something about the recipient - and then they go away and customize the parcel - wonderful.

Bear and I have been sharing out latest book, a mammoth volume entitled The Ultimate Book of Pens - which is in three languages, English, German and French. Once I got used to reading every third column I'm loving the history and little stories about the manufacturers and notable inventors, and the images.

And the lost ... was this, at eldest cubs camp. Not sure what happened ... he is quite upset, I guess he knows how much time and effort goes into a hand knit and he wears it all the time. Monday Bear or I will pop into his school and see what can be done about finding it ... the camp was several hours drive south of home ... so we need to at least check school is aware and looking on our behalf. It was all labeled but if he has left it on a tree or fence .. a label won't help it come home until some one finds it.

Ok - I'm not going to get to upset about lost knits after all ... stuff happens, and it means I get to knit more, I'm off to turn over the mittens so the other side drys, and head out with the smallest cub - it is her turn to go to camp this week, and we need a few little things for her.

Take care
This week is a week of student final presentations and marking ... next week there is a masters to mark (oh eeek - that is Monday so I'll have to read it this week). I'll post when I can, and knit when I need to - and suggest you all do the same to keep sane.
na Stella

Bother!

There are ruder words in the English language, but I always think that like the George the Prince in Black Adder - a simple understated utterance of 'bother' is at times far more meaningful than any stronger expletive could be.George also uses the term 'golly' to express surprise - again understated to the point of being a perfect way to express surprise. Today's post - well there is a bit of bother, and a new place with wonderful things to tell you about.

I've decided that there are to many Wip's in my life, my knit life, my work life, my home life, my family life. Oh the kids are not finished and every time they lack manners and act as kids do I realize they are most definitely still a work in progress. The family home is a work in progress in almost every room ... and outside, my work like has many unfinished things, at least 2 papers to write and a pile of marking that arrived this past week to replace the pile I returned the week before. Another pile looms at the end of this week ... that is the reality of a teaching career. And in the knitting basket .. well there are the Cat mittens, the large single bed sized blanket, the cashmere shawl I started in late August and worked 3 rows of, and the linen basket liner. And that is just with me thinking and not looking ... there is bound to be at least one project that I've forgotten to add to that list. I decided to work monogamously on one project the Cat mittens and then they would be done. As I worked on them I realized I'd made an error ......this is how one side of the mitten looks. It is a pattern the author calls dancing ants, a line of alternative light and dark stitches bordered by a dark stitch either side.

Some how on the other side I had worked a double row of dancing ants .... look. Not pretty and yes only I would know, but that is the problem I would know that I had noticed it and not fixed it when I could. So I worked another few rounds and then decided I could ignore the mistake no longer. At this point I had nearly completed the cat, oh the cat was missing its tail, but the cat was in essence done ...

Which made this a little harder .. but I knew it was the right thing to do. I slid out the needles .. and frogged back the mitten.Until all I had was the ribbing above the braid and the cat was gone. I've now got the mittens back on the needles .. and I'm back working the beginnings of the cats feet .. and looking forward to the paw print at the top of the mitten. I had plans to work on this and the largest cub could take them to camp. He is off to his first school camp, at age 11, but first I realized I didn't need the stress of a deadline on top of the setback of frogging, and then his teacher rejected the hand knit mittens I had made him for winter and said he needed proper gloves for camp. I knit his last teacher a lovely pair of alpaca mitts as a thank you for being such an inspiration to him . .. I don't thing I will be doing that this time for this teacher.

Then there is the other distraction - I'm still enjoying rediscovering fountain pens and inks, A mid 1970's Lamy 69 arrived from Holland this week (via ebay), and it is lovely - although I've only found one place online that even mentions the Lamy 69 and they say it came with a steel nib whereas mine has an 18kt gold nib. In the photo the Lamy is the all black pen, the silver grid one is one Bear bought me, a Parker 75 to go with a ball point my Dad had kicking around a parts box in his garage(also in the photo). They are both Stirling silver - and I felt I really had to save the ball point from a life in the parts box - getting dented next to spark plugs and a wire brush. Also in this image is an Autopoint pencil that Bear scored on ebay, one of two. Autopoint pencils take 0.9mm leads and are very nicely made, with a solid weight and nice length. This one has a depth indicator for 4 inches on it and the logo for Wilkin Insulation Co - which is kind-a cool although I don't know where I will next need to measure if something is 4" deep. This one has a rather spectacular mechanical pen clip.
Then there is all the looking out for things in the post, I've gone shares with another Dunedinite in a bulk order of Diamine ink in glass bottles and Noodlers. The Noodlers should arrive next month, and the Diamine the month after ... we have ordered thru the New Zealand agent and so the overseas shipping will be very economical - and it made sense to buy in bulk (or at least that is what I told myself). Then I was told by someone about Jumping Tangents .. who are only a few hours away and have an online shop .... so there may or may not be some J. Herbin violette pensee on its way to me - ok there is - I won't deny it - it might make marking more pleasurable if I mark with scented ink? Worth a try at least.

All in all a sort of one step forward one step back .. one forward sort of week. Today the elder cub and I spent the best part of the morning out and about locating all the little bits he needs to take camping, new underpants, a soap box, a toothbrush box. We also spent some time in the garage sorting the best luggage for a school camp (turns out it is the backpack that his dad toured the UK with some 25 years ago. Then we spend the afternoon at the sewing machine stitching name tags into everything of value ... and every thing that could possibly be the same as all the other 30+ 10/11 and 12 year old boys would take to camp. It was good - Toby did most of the sewing, and once he got over his fear of the machine was quite capable of raising and lowering the needle and foot, turning corners, back-tacking, and snipping threads. Wonder if he would like to make a tee shirt or sweat shirt next holidays?

Here in New Zealand is a long weekend, Labor weekend - celebrating the 40 hour work week, and the start of warmer reliable weather ... I am looking forward to the extra day off tomorrow and the short week that follows. So far we have spent much of the time outside, gardening. mostly weeding but a little fence maintenance and planting of the first round of veggies.

take care - I'm off to check the food in the oven, see if it needs basting or turning ... and perhaps settle in to knit some.
na stella

There is a hole in a sock in my house!

Yes a hole. Yesterday my youngest cub announced that there was a hole in her favorite pink socks so she solved the problem by putting a pair of commercial socks underneath. Clearly while she knits she is not yet a knitter who recognizes that holes are bad things and must be fixed. Darning that sock has now been added to my to-do list, along with knitting the grey band around the sheltand yarn blanket, finishing the cat mittens for elder cub. There are new toys in my house .... some fibre from a scrappy swap which I totally forgot to photograph, and a new vintage mechanical pencil that is so pretty I want to write every thing in pencil, and a neat magnifying glass.

Socks with holes are not allowed. This is a fear of mine, that if I use yarn with no reinforcement there will be holes, so I tend towards yarn with nylon in it to avoid this very thing - and so far my strategy has worked. Oh there have been holes, perhaps 2 others to date, one in a bamboo-wool blend sock, and the other in the first pair of socks I ever knitted. These socks date from January 2009 - so I guess I should be happy they have lasted so long on a growing 8 year old. The problem may just be long nails - trimming those with this cub is always a battle involving cajoling and bribery. I can't blame the yarn totally, and they are as she said her 'favorite socks', so have been worn often.

In those times when I need to knit and not really focus on my knitting - and there are more of those than I'd care to admit, I have been knitting on the blanket shawl in shetland yarn. The grey garter border grows - slowely, but this is a nice peaceful mindless knit.

Last night I finally returned to my other wip's, or at least one of them, the Cat Mittens by Jorid Linvik. At the end of last night there was most of the third cat, sans tail. Some how charts such as this with different patterning every round seem too difficult for busy times - but then as I knit I realize that charts are not as demanding as i think they will be. Now I have reminded myself of that I should continue to work on these and have them done soon - except we have a weekend away. We are to visit my brother in Christchurch and as we are driving up and back I will need car knitting, portable knitting, and this is not that project.

Monday when I arrived home I found a lovely surprise, well three surprises on the doorstep. A vintage pencil to match my Burnham fountain pen, it isn't a perfect match - but close enough for me. These vintage pencils have 1.1mm lead which is stronger and seems smoother than the modern 0.5mm pencils, and the vintage one has a nice heft and smoothness which feels nice to use.


The second parcel was 140g of spinning fibre, an amazing mix of colours, as the result of a scrap swap I signed up for. I totally forgot to photograph the fibre - but I will next time. I'm curious to see what the others in the swap do with their mixes, singles, two ply, or Navajo ply. The third parcel was a little back ordered item from the Auckland Map Centre. Some time back I found a Lumagraphy magnifying glass in a second hand shop, and it was fantastic but the light was a little unreliable. I googled and found modern versions and ordered one, this is a 6x magnifying glass with a powered light which just makes things easier to see. The light also functions as a torch. I bought 3 of these, they were so cheap, that I figured they would be in use and claimed - and I was right. Bear has already taken one to work and asked for one to give his brother as a gift. This one is mine - I'm not letting it stray far from my work basket.

so ... no post this weekend,
enjoy the sun - or what ever your climate brings.
knit some ... rest some ... laugh some
na Stella

Despite my best intentions

to clear my needles of existing projects before starting anything new I still managed to come away from Saturday with a new project on my needles. Saturday was KSG - Knitters Study Group, and the topic was shapes. I took with me a selection of yarns and needles and tossed in a spool of linen just because it caught my eye. The shapes were squares, triangles, circles, hexegons and octagons. One suggestion was made, that it would be a good idea to swatch in cotton and then the swatch could be used as a wash cloth .... I started thinking that swatching in the linen would give me a basket liner for bread or muffins. Do you see what happened? There I was having decided not to start any thing new until at least some of my WIP's were off the needles and I just 'had' to cast on a new project. So today I introduce my new project, and showoff progress on my current main project. Today there are no new pens, or inks .. but I may have ordered a 1950's perfectly matching pencil for my Burnham fountain pen ... just may have.

The wall hanging has a 'required by' date of October the 12th, that is the date by which the one transporting them to Wellington is leaving town, so that is the date by which the work must be done. I am well on the way to finishing it. There was however a little boredom kicking in, knitting the same few rows of offset dots over and over - even using a new method of handling the yarn was tedious .. so I've started to bubble-out the dots a little, with fewer per line and more space between them as if they were floating away. I saw some of the other projects finished on Saturday and many included the name of the person they were for ... a fairly easy way to customise the project and something I may yet add.

And the new project? Here, not much to show yet, the first section of lace is done and I'm about to work the section where the star points are created. I'd love to fill the space between the points with eyelet lace or some other lace pattern .. but for now it is on hold as I finish the wall hanging in time to make the deadline.

Tomorrow I'm back to work, marking my share of those essays, but tomorrow night is spinning night and there is knitting to distract me .. so I'll cope. Essay marking is always a swinging emotional field, tiring, and at times inspiring when they get it, and then brutally demoralizing when they don't.

take care
na Stella

Daylight saving

Last Sunday we set the clocks forward for spring daylight saving, you know spring forward, fall back? Now instead of it being light when I wake, it is dark, a small change but a significant one, I know that in less than a month it will be light when I wake again, and that the longer twilight evenings are worth every minute of morning darkness - but for now, my body is out of sync, I'm not hungry at meal times, and I'm not sleepy at bed time, and its dark when I wake up. I have been on leave this week, and I thought I'd have lots to blog today, but as the last post was Monday, and today is Wednesday there is not much knitting progress to show. I have been working on my Peruvian knitting technique, and making changes to the design for the wall hanging so there has been frogging, there is almost no progress on any other knit project, but I do have new and old things to share. The last installment of the Vintage Purls Winter 2010 Sock club arrived and it is pretty, and two vintage fountain pens arrived, and a vintage pencil, and I have ink in colours I never knew that ink came in. Ink can it seems be as exciting as yarn.

So as this is a officially a knitting blog, first I'll write of knitterly things, the current work in progress (WIP) project and then the new sock kit, after that I can let the post wander of into non-knitting territory, and you can stay and read as much as you want.

New project, or nearly new project, the wall hanging. I restarted this, I had based the design on Kaffe Fassett's 'Poppy's' but the 12 stitch floats were way to long to strand easily ... so I frogged and reworked a similar pattern but with a smaller circle. I also took the opportunity to rethink how best to knit a wall hanging, so I've added a 10 ridge garter boarder all around to keep the edges flat. I spent a wee bit of time googling yesterday, it is a word isn't it? Googling? I watched the videos of Andrea Wong knitting and found a few others on you tube that showed me a way to tension the yarn in my right hand, little things that I had not paid much attention to when watching Andrea in person. I also came across a few blog posts that detailed this kind of knitting and was impressed with this one, suggesting that those little cute hangars that come with socks (like socks need hangars!) are useful Portuguese pin substitutes. At the moment the knitting feels 'slow' but that is because I am having to think about where my hands are are what they need to do, when I look at what I knit in an evening I am pleased.

My other knit projects have been ignored, and I really should not do that, start projects and then ignore them. The Vintage purl sock kit arrived Monday, and I want to cast on .. but let me see, one part mitten to knit, one shetland blanket, one wall hanging, and one large blanket ... I really need to tame and finish at least one of those before I add another. Like all her sock designs this one is pretty, with interesting cables, this is part lace part twisty cable,and is in a lovely purple blue, and look another bead and more knitting stickies! The toe is shaped to flow around the cable lace ... oh I really need to make space in the knitting basket for this one, and soon.

With all the fibre and yarn I 'acquired' while away I can still be tempted by local offerings, not local fibre but stocked locally. This is pencil roving, so very very nice quality, Schoppel Wolle InSilk 70% merino and 30% silk. I have never had a wool silk blend this evenly mixed ... it is a joy to spin.

Added also to my spinning basket is a wee extra from Crafty kiwi, way back in May of this year we were both part of a fibre swap, and at the time he said 'opps I forgot to add the last thing'. The swap parcel was so full I couldn't think what he forgot .. but this week M who had been away to a retreat brought back the forgotten fibre. Silk hankies! Oooooo, wonderful, I couldn't resist just teasing one out to see how that worked .....and they really do look like hankies complete with a wee hem!


And now the blog takes a turn for the non-knitterly, the trip to the second hand shops on Monday was not as fruitful as I had hoped. I did score a lovely fine Sabatini Cardigan, no not from winter 08 - probably a spring collection some years before, but nice and it fits, Toby failed to spot any lego treasure. Not finding fountain pens is fine, as two have arrived in the post over the past few weeks. The top one in this photo is an unbranded one, with a 14K nib, from Trademe, refurbished and writing nicely, the second one is a refurbished Burnham #60 from Ebay UK, again with a 14k nib, but this time a stub nib, and so so smooth, and the last one is one of two pencils I bought from Ebay USA. These are Autopoint pencils and they use a 0.9mm refill, Bear has the other one. These pencils have a nice quality feel and weight and seem to be the perfect size and balance. Why vintage fountain pens, well ... Bear found his fathers pen and we identified it as an Wahl Eversharp Skyline, from the 1940's, his dads is just like the burgandy one with the gold striped cap - it is a beauty but needs some repair (a new sac and some nib alignment), then Bear he was generous enough to gift me a 1.1mm Conway Steward pencil that was either his mums or his grandmothers. I dug out my Parker 45, boring old stainless steel but with a 1mm italic nib which I have owned since the mid 1980's, and then found blogs like Daves Mechanical Pencils, and Carpe David. Oh the wonder of discovering vintage pens and writing tools over cheap disposable ball points, and of discovering inks in colours that I only thought fibre came in. I have only tried Damson, Saddle Brown, and Monaco Red so far, all of which are a world away from black, blue-black, and blue, and I can see that I need to try more, and perhaps even some other brands that are available here in New Zealand. I feel like I've discovered a world of networked pen-geeks, a lot like the network of fibre and knitting geeks I count myself as one of .... they have the same sense of generosity and sharing of knowledge that the knitters online have.

next post ... more knitting I promise, its KSG - aka knitters study group saturday, so there will be something to post from that. I'm not sure I'll be at Thursday night knitting, depends on Wee bear and the travel arrangements to collect her ...

take care
na Stella

Coming clean - fessing up

In today's post I'll share my goodies acquired on my Shetland trip - and that feels a little like coming clean, of confessing. Next post I'll talk more about the conference ... promise, but I feel like I need to 'process' the new acquisitions just so I can put them away. By process I mean, document, add the books to my Library Thing listing, and to my Ravelry page, and the same with yarn and fibre. I will also update you on the knitting- in progress, there is something finished, something lost, something new and something making good progress but in the wrong size.
First the goodies, then the knighting - OK?


So Shetland goodies .. well my first knitting purchases were at the Shetland times, Lorna my traveling companion had this place on her 'must do' list. She went with a list of books she 'needed' to add to her library. I was happy just to look, but had read the latest Knitter on the way over and saw Jarad Floods recommendation for Heirloom Knitting by Sharon Miller as a must have for those thinking about lace, On Lorna's recommendation I also picked up Shetland Lace by Gladys Amedro (recently reprinted), A Stitch in Time Unst's Fine lace knitting by the Unst Heritage Trust, Respect the Spindle by Abby Franquemont (nothing to do with Shetland knitting but they had it in stock - who was I to ignore it?).

A few days latter Annemor Sundbo's luggage arrived and the Shetland Museum and Archives had her books for sale - so I splurged. Now I am the proud owner of Everyday Knitting - Treasures from the Ragpile (which I thought was out of print!), Setesdal Sweaters - the History of the Norwegian Lice Pattern, and Invisible Threads in Knitting. All of these are available direct from Annemor herself. Her website if worth a visit just to spend time looking at her treasures in her flickr gallery. If you are into history and historic knitting - do visit the photo gallery of the Shetland Museum Archives - between the photos of people wearing knitting and photos of knitting itself here is more than enough to look at.

The best bit was I summoned up enough courage to be a real knitting groupie and ask for a copy of Everyday Knitting - Treasures from the Ragpile to be signed - and it was, with my name!



Also at the museum I picked up these two treasures, the University of Southampton Guide to the Knitting collections was a conference bag gift, and contains more information on the three significant collections they hold. It is now the repository of the collections of Montse Stanley, Richard Rutt and Jane Waller, and it contains not only printed knitting materials but artifacts and tools as well. The little volume underneath is the brand new Guide to the Shetland Museum Textile collection - which is full of beautiful images of old and new textiles, many of which are knit.

Then there was the fibre shopping - I bought fibre, both yarn and combed top ... all of which are souvenir fibre, the kind that will bring back fond memories as I spin and knit. At Jamiesons I asked if they had any fibre for spinning and they answered they did. They said usually they just gave out a plastic bag and took you out to the back room where there was a few boxes of mixed mill waste - and I could help myself. Oh my, just like at the mill in Milton - Mill scraps! The plastic bag was huge - well it was a large black garbage bag ... which I knew I couldn't fill and fit into my suitcase .. so I carefully selected some fibre that I think will spin into something for colour work. I tend towards muted colours .. but tried to give myself a bit of contrast in this selection.


At Jamiesons and Smith, the 'other' Shetland mill on the islands - the combed Shetland top was on display - and this pale blue just felt like one I would easily add to my fibre stash. This is the colourway Haar . and is a mix of white, medium blue and grey - greyer than it is here.


The knitting mis-hap that occurred, occured early in my trip, we had five planes from New Zealand to Shetland. Some where on the 3rd plane I slept, and I stowed my knitting project in its knitting bag on the floor by my feet. When I woke I could not find it, I didn't panic but I was hampered by the chair in front being reclined so I had little room to search and bend in. Those economy seats - are not called cattle class for nothing. When we went to disembark .. my knitting in its bag was not there. The flight attendants, Lorna and I searched the section of the plane around where we sat .. but could not find it. Either it rolled far away during the flight and landing .. or some one else scooped it up amongst their belongings.

Either way - I keep thinking what use is 160g of handspun perendale part knitted into a centre out blanket to most peopl? especially as I was making it up as I knit so there was no pattern. As a result the first yarn I bought was a replacement for the baby blanket, 4 balls of Lace weight from Jamiesons and Smith, in white. This was to provide my 'conference knitting', you know the mindless project that I could knit on whilst I listened.


Then after seeing the museum collections, and many many inspiring shawls and blankets in the books I bought and in some of the talks .. well I decided to add a lace border, in medium grey, dark grey and blue so added these to my travel stash.

At Jamiesons I added these to the stash ... loving the colour selection, not knowing what I wanted to make but feeling that I couldn't ignore having so many colours in the same weight of yarn to choose from.





At every knitting shop they sold knitting belts and at the conference there were on going knitting lounges with demonstrations of how to knit in the Shetland way. So I came home with a belt, and plans to practice.





And I'm still thinking of knitting Wintergreen by Kate Gilbert .. so these colour might just the the ones. This is the only yarn that I bought with a plan in mind.





And finally the knitting, I finished the second Theodora sock whilst I was away and wore them. They are now in the wash ... its been wintery here I'm waiting for drying weather before they are washed, photos next time I promise. I did finish one of the mittens intended for Toby ... but it is to small in the thumb. My plan is to knit the second mitten and make the thumb longer, adding more of the fish skeleton pattern to do so.











And I'm still loving the paw print on the reverse of these. They were mostly knit on the plane trip the the UK .. but it was a little bumpy on the return trip so I opted to knit the blanket. Plus I was tired by then, I didn't want to have to worry about charts bumping around on my knee.









so ... all in all a little more than I expected to buy, especially the books, but nothing I regret, and a lot to look forward to reading and using.
take care - conference report next post :D
Stella