Thoughts on the result

Today is a sad day. I will readily admit that when Mr Dimbley called the result at around 5.30 this morning, I swore at the television. And yet I have to remind myself that I am fortunate.  I am fortunate to live in a nation where I, and millions of others, have democratic rights that we can exercise freely.  I am fortunate to live in a nation where I can express my disappointment without fear of reprisal. I am fortunate that I have a loving family, a home to go to, food to eat, and many comforts beside. I must remember to value the democratic rights that I have and respect those whose views do not coincide with mine.

Today was supposed to be a celebration.  Two colleagues and I were celebrating achieving a milestone promotion. And we were still able to do that. And for a little while we were able to forget. And now we must move on.

Some things will change. But I suspect that much won't. And I will still be much more fortunate than so many others.

So, I will delete the vitriolic tweets that I draft but do not post. I will commiserate with friends and grind my teeth.  I will wonder what apparently led so many people to vote "Leave" without actually wanting that outcome - and consider why that situation has arisen. I will remember that there were intelligent, thoughtful people campaigning on both sides of the debate (as well as those who were deceitful or self-serving - on both sides of the debate). I will try to look to the future with positivity, hope and respect.  And I will try to remember how fortunate I am to live in a democratic country.

Jane Austen Vest - Part 4: Knitting

It will be a shorter post this week (and late), because I've been spending all my time on the knitting! 


I cast on, as planned, on 1 November.  Worked nearly 8 complete rounds of rib and realised that it was twisted.  Aagh.  I don't recall ever having done that before, but I did it big time.  On the plus side, at the second attempt the ribbing came out much more even than it had the first time.


At the time of writing, I am now almost up to the split for the V-neck (which comes a few rounds before the under-arm shaping).  This has involved one re-work of the pattern.  There was one row missing (fortunately in the straight waist section so I could just insert one extra row) and a couple of places where the pattern itself was wrong at the end of the start of the round.  I fixed these points and also re-sized the rows in the spreadsheet so that they are all the same height - drawing on the outline had caused some rows to grow slightly.  This wouldn't matter except that I was trying to use the chart reading function in Knit Companion.  Until the row heights were fixed, the chart highlighter wouldn't work properly and, frankly, was more trouble that it was worth.  But it's all fixed now and working well.


I have a post planned for next weekend, although I'll be visiting Mum and Dad, so may not have time to post, but will try to include progress pictures.  And the rate I'm going, the following week will be the steeks. 

Jane Austen Vest - Part 3: Spreadsheets

I am getting very excited about this project as tomorrow is the day that I cast on; I have decided that the vest will be my all wool Wovember project.  In the meantime, I have had much fun playing with spreadsheets.  I am aware that, strange as it may seem, there are people who don't like spreadsheets.  I, however, am my father's daughter and see them as the solution to all problems - and the more colourful they are the better.

I mentioned in the last post that I had used a spreadsheet to help chart the design and decide how it should look.

The left-hand of these two images is the original version with larger keys and too much cream.  The right-hand has the smaller keys, extra peerie patterns in pink on blue and gives me the colour balance that I prefer (there's also a change to how the graduation of the colours in the large flower patterns works).  Although the colours in the chart don't exactly match the yarn, they're close enough so that I could see the balance better.

Once I'd got to this point, I then needed to turn it into a pattern for an actual vest.  First, I found a pattern for a similar vest at a similar gauge - I chose the Ivy League Vest.  I used this pattern to chart out what the increases and decreases were on the size that was closest to the size of vest that I want to make.  I then turned those increases and decreases into measurements in inches based on the gauge given in the pattern.

I knew my gauge for the actual knitting (I had a swatch or two to measure from) and so I could then turn the sample increases and decreases into my actual increases and decreases using the different gauges and the adjustments I wanted to make to the size of the pattern (slightly longer, higher V, slightly bigger at the bust) - and then I had added two more sheets to my workbook.





The left-hand picture shows the sample pattern with all the "at the same time" changes marked - it did take me a little while to work this out.  The right-hand picture then shows the translation of that for my dimensions and gauge.  I have to say that if I were ever to knit the Ivy League vest, I would probably use this chart to keep track of the various increases and decreases.  I am a visual person and would struggle to keep track through the written version.  However, what I did for the actual vest pattern was to map the increases and decreases onto the design chart:

This picture shows most of the pattern and, close up, you can see the purled mock seam at the left of the char.  I have made sure that the large flowers in the blue and pink section are centred but not worried too much about either the keys (although they are all lined up with one another) of the diagonal stripes.

There was one more worksheet prepared this morning.  I checked out exactly how much of each yarn colour I have and in what dye lot.  I'm not going to worry too much about the dye lots, although I will only change at the end of a section of a particular colour, but I wanted to know how much yarn I have (way too much) so that I then know how much I use to knit the thing.  My suspicion is that I won't be far off having sufficient yarn to knit two entire vests but we shall see.

Now I'm off to make sure I have the right needles all ready to go so that I can cast on in the morning!

Jane Austen Vest - Part 2: More swatching

You didn't think that what I posted last week was all the swatches did you?  That was just the beginning.  Of  the first swatch.

I have previously knitted the Autumn Rose Sweater and in doing so had seen how colours could be shaded (even though I didn't use the original colours).  I had also seen how a smaller pattern could be used in between bands of a larger pattern.  And so I started experiment.

First, I started playing with shading on the flower patterns that I had taken from Sense and Sensibility.  I shaded both the blues and the pinks, using colours that were a little more "me" than those I'd used originally, even though the originals were a closer match to the colours of the book.

I also started playing with the chair pattern from Emma.  My attempts to work a full chair didn't really work especially since, the whole way through, I was trying to ensure that there were never more than 5 stitches of a single colour.  I have since worked a sweater with a stranded yoke that has far more than 5 stitch runs but I was trying to obey the "rules".  So, I looked at the chairs more closely, and saw the stripes on the seats.

Those stripes were something that I could work with and so I started playing with a pattern of diagonal stripes on a shaded green background.  The first set were too far apart, but the second set were better.

Having go to that point, I then decided to make my life just that little more difficult and bring in a third book.  Northanger Abbey has a fun design of shocking pink keys (not terribly Gothic) on an oatmealy background and I decided that this should be my third pattern.

I played around with the key pattern on paper and so got to something I liked and then ... bound off.  I had a "complete" swatch, but it had all sorts of random bits and pieces in it and so I decided to start from scratch, but in a bit of rib, and then knit a swatch of the overall design.  Which I did.  And I didn't like it.  There was nothing wrong with it really but for me the balance of the colours was wrong - there was too much cream and not enough blue.  So then I turned to my computer.

I used excel to start charting my designs.  I charted what I had knitted as the overall swatch, and then I started playing with it.  I reduced the size of the keys.  I blended the blue into the green each time.  And I added a small flower "peerie pattern" in my deepest shade of pink before and after the main pink flowers each time.  And then I knitted another swatch (well actually, there was an intermediate one, but I quickly realised I didn't like it and restarted).  And so I came up with the final swatch.  The ribbing in the garment will not match this (I'm going to use 3 x 1 not 3 x 3) and I think there's the odd extra plain blue row in there, but this is the basic flow of the design.  In the picture below, the final design is on the left with the "too cream" version on the right.

So there it is.  A colour work pattern.  Next, an overall pattern was needed.  I'll write about that next week and also post a picture of the yarn that arrived this week.   Together with what I already had, I've got waaaaay too much, and I haven't yet checked what's going on with the dye lots.  But I'm working on the basis that as long as I don't change lot part way through a section it will all be fine!

Jane Austen Vest - Part 1: Shetland

No, as far as I am aware, Jane Austen never went to Shetland.  However, in October last year, I was fortunate enough to go to Shetland Wool Week, and that is where the story of my vest begins.  My parents spent their honeymoon on Shetland and so I was keen to see the place as well as to have the opportunity to spend time with wool.  And it is indeed a beautiful place.

When I was booking, I looked at what classes and trips I might want to take and I decided to take the Quotidian Colourwork course taught by Felicity Ford, aka Felix, or Knitsonik.  In some ways, this felt like a bit of a cop out as I know Felix from the knitting group in Reading.  On the other hand, I was heading to the other end of the country and beyond on my own so it would be nice to see a friendly face.  And Felix's face is always friendly.

The idea behind Quotidian Colourwork is to take inspiration for stranded colourwork knitting from everyday sources - but from sources that the knitter finds beautiful.  Felix has knitted some amazing swatches that I had been lucky enough to see in person, and I wanted to have a go.  So I headed of to Shetland with some warm woolies, more knitting and crochet projects than I could possibly get through in the time I was going to be there, and copies of two of Jane Austen's books.

I have read all of Austen's novels several times and have very battered copies sitting on the shelf, but I had recently discovered these rather lovely Penguin editions of, among other things, Jane Austen's works.

Sense and Sensibility, and Emma came to Shetland with me, and it was Sense and Sensibility that I took to class, where I started swatching.

 We were provided with squared notebooks and coloured pencils and started by charting elements of our chosen objects.  I picked out one of the larger flowers on the book cover, "drew" it and then started swatching.  During the class, I tried two colour combinations for my flowers and then at the end of class we were able to take yarn away with us to try more options.  So, then I started on the chairs on the cover of Emma.

By the time I left Shetland, I had a start on how some of the colours worked together and how some of the patterns were working.  But none of the colour / pattern combinations that I worked up while I was in Shetland will actually feature in the final garment - there was much more swatching to be done!

Like a hole in the head

I need a new hobby like a hole in the head. Nonetheless, I have become obsessed with the idea of a quilt. This idea becomes even more insane when you realise that the purpose of said quilt will be to go over the back of a sofa in my craft room (which I don't - yet - have) in a house that we have not yet found, let alone bought. However, the knitting mojo is a little lacking at the moment (not really feeling the love of socks or shawls - my usual staples - at the moment). Also, I've realise I have a problem with colour; I can't make all garments in shades of blue, grey and possibly mauve. I have a hope that quilting will help.

So yesterday, I tidied my desk. It now looks like this. I also sorted out the drawers and now have one that looks like this.

You will note the rotary cutter. I have previously found this difficult to use and couldn't cut straight with it. However, browsing websites, I discovered that there's a difference between left handed and right handed rotary cutters. Yesterday, I discovered that mine can be set up either way. Having switched to left handed, I then had a play with some scraps - and, joy, it worked. Who'd a thunk it?!

So, next weekend, there will be a trip to the quilting shop ...

Who'da thought

Well I never. There's a Blogger App. It should have been obvious, but I always forget how fast technology is moving. The fact that I can't easily blog from my iPhone one day should make it obvious that there'll be an App to help the next.

On that basis, I really have no excuse not to blog more often - the phone goes just about everywhere with me, it will take the necessary photos (no piccies with this post though - my rather untidy bedroom does not need to go on public display) and it appears to be pretty straightforward. Clearly, if I want to blog pictures taken on my proper camera, it will have to be via Mildred but this will work for many things.

In other news, no pancakes for me today. And how do people find time to make pancakes before work?

I am still trying to work out whether it is possible to blog from my phone. I feel that it ought to be, but as yet I have not been successful. But I use the phone far more than the laptop these days and so it would be handy.

That said, Mildred the laptop has been out this evening. I am currently knitting a Cardigan (Sojourner) on which there are decreases at the neck edge happening at a different rate from the increases in the side seams. For me, that spells "spreadsheet". That's particularly the case on this occasion as I am putting in short-row shaping, using the extremely helpful information in Ysolda's latest book "Little Red in the City". There are several patterns in the book that I want to do, but Sojourner was already planned, so it reached the head of the queue first.

Well, this is a bit of a mini-post, especially since I can no longer see what I'm typing as I write; however, it does seem that I can compose posts (albeit without pictures) on the phone. You never know - perhaps this will encourage me to post more regularly.

Photography class

I promised to write more about the Cornwall retreat, and so here it is (although it may not look that way at first...). I got up this morning, and made a cuppa in my beautiful retreat mug.

I then cleared my workspace and started taking photographs.

The last class that I took in Cornwall was with Anne and was on photography. Initially, it was just Ali and me in the class, but then Alice was able to join in too. We started out talking about backgrounds, light and how these can affect the picture - looking right in to the object and seeing the shadows. We also tallked about how the different objects in a picture can affect one another (Ali's pink sweater cast a definite glow onto a ball of oatmeal-ish yarn) but less obviously when the two colours are on opposite sides of the colour wheel. We then started looking at how to edit our pictures. Below are my 'before' and 'after' (they have been made the same size, but that's all I did to the first one.) We looked at how to edit the colours and how they affect one another. In the original picture, the red skein wasn't far from its correct colour, but the green wasn't showing its real vibrancy.

We then went on to take some pictures of an FO (more to follow).

I saw Alice again on Thursday. She has already bought a new camera - I am only thinking about it (although it has to be said that I found some functions on mine this morning that I couldn't find last week).

Just a quick one

Just a very quick post this evening, as I really ought to be in bed! I have spent the weekend in Cornwall - Watergate Bay to be precise - at the Socktopus 2011 knitting retreat. The train back was somewhat delayed so I didn't get home until 9.30. I have emptied the suitcase and the knitting bag and sorted out my projects to take to Sticks and String tomorrow (priorities being what they are...).

I arrived home to find two parcels. The first was from NicsKnots containing a dpn needle roll (which has been filled with my KnitPro Nova dpns) and a matching sock project bag (which has a sock project installed). The second was the first instalment of Rosemary Hill's 2011 Pins and Lace club, which contained - well, I won't say just on the very remote off chance that someone who hasn't had their package yet reads this. Suffice it to say that I am very excited. And all this on top of having received the first instalment of the Knit Love Club 2011 Sock Club while I was away. I'm so excited that I don't know where to start!

On the train on the way back from Cornwall, I made some notes in my knitting book on what I wanted to put into future blog posts. There is a (pencil) scrawl at the top of the page saying "where are all my biros?" (actually, I don't think there's a question mark at all) - and then a response of "here's one" arising from my need to sort my bag out in order to get everything back into it. Other topics to cover include the wonders of Audible, the wonders of Cornwall, the things I learnt in classes, and the mysterious UFO. Some additional photography is required to complete these posts but in the meantime, here's a picture of the beautiful Watergate Bay.

PS - There is not going to be a completed blanket square this month, but other things have been achieved on the way through!

Knit Love Club

In 2009 I was a member of the Socktopus sock club, and in 2010 I joined the next generation of Alice's club 'Knit Love Club'. This year Alice designed all the patterns herself, and in addition to the six pairs of socks there was also a bonus package with a scarf pattern adn yarn. The scarf was completed today and this was the last of my seven projects - so here they all are.


For 2011 I am a member of the 'Knit Love Club' again and this year, Alice is dying the yarn herself. I have also joined Rosemary (Romi) Hill's Pins and Lace club - 4 shawl patterns with yarn and a hand-made shawl pin.

Embryonic blanket

Back in March last year, I started knitting a 'Ten Stitch Blanket' using left-over sock yarns. I pulled together my left-overs in blues, pinks and purples, and set to work. And then, as is often the way(!), I became side-tracked. I picked up my blanket sporadically, but it didn't really grow very much. However, I did make a decision. I decided that, rather than keep on going around and around until I had the full blanket, I would make a series of squares and then join them at the end. The idea was that this would be less unwieldy.

On Monday, I finally finished the first square, and yesterday I blocked it. It has blocked to around 18" square, and therefore, if I work 12 squares, I could end up with a blanket 4'6" by 6' which sounds like a pretty reasonable size.

I have also made the decision that I will try to complete one square per month this year. This means that, by the end of November I should have my 12 squares completed, leaving December for the joining.

We'll have to wait and see how well I stick to this. Number 2 square is underway, and in the meantime, here is number 1 square. The ends that are visible are all on the outer row - I have darned in all the "inner" ends so there aren't toooo many to do when I'm making up.

Checking in next month to see whether there's another square...

Happy New Year

Well, Happy New Year to Blog-land. 2010 was an eventful year, not always in a good way - and so here's to a peaceful 2011.

I spent Christmas overseas with my sister and her family. It was lovely to see them all (and to meet the newest addition to the family - the new 10 week old nephew) and to spend time with them. It was also good to escape from the rat race that is Christmas at home - Christmas is not big where they are which means it is actually possible to go into shops on Christmas Eve (or even on Christmas Day) and there is no mad panic of consumerism.

The reason I went away was because, for the first time, Mr Auntie Fred was working over Christmas. He returned on 30 December, so we had Christmas lunch yesterday (although we opened presents the evening before, after he got home). One of my presents was an electric 'frosting pen' - a gadget for applying frosting (or icing!) to cakes. It so happens that I had a tub of
one of the recommended brands of frosting in the cupboard, and so I have spent the afternoon experimenting. I baked a batch of muffins, applied chocolate frosting and gold star dust, and here is the result. I discovered that it is not a good idea to bake in my oven without the fan on (although I have done so before) - each muffin rose towards the centre of the oven, hence some of the distinctly lopsided creations shown. Still, it doesn't seem to alter the flavour which isn't bad if I do say so myself!

It's that time of the year when we make resolutions - going to the gym, losing weight, blogging more often, creating a certain number of knitterly projects or whatever they may be. I am not going to go into writing formally on my resolutions (although all of the above might well appear were a list to be made), but it is my intention to blog slightly more often this year, and let's face it, based on last year's showing that wouldn't be hard!

Where does time go?

I was going to post today about the excitement of having a new iPhone. However, said iPhone would not allow me to write a post (I could put in a title and labels, but no actual text). If no-one is reading this, it wouldn't actually matter, but since I delude myself that people do occassionally read my ramblings, it seems only fair that I should ramble.

In my last post, I talked about going to buy yarn for the sweater that I was going to work on in the 'Sweater Fitness' class at KnitNation. Well, KnitNation (and the class) have been and gone - it was fab - and the sweater has been knit. I made some fairly significant modifications to the pattern along the way but it does fit pretty well. I would like to try to do a v-neck version (with a not quite so wide neck line) but that is a project for when it isn't the run-up to Christmas (yes, I did just say that at the beginning of September!).

In other news, I tried to make plum jam yesterday. I had about a pound and a half of plums, so I wasn't expecting huge quantities. What I ended up with was two and a half jars of plum toffee, and a preserving plan with a very burnt bottom. I did eventually get the plan clean, but whether anyone will ever succeed in getting the toffee back out of the jars is another matter! Today is planned to be mixed red berry. Wel'll see how it goes

Back from the depths

Dear Blog,

I'm sorry I have neglected you. I didn't mean to - but real life seems to have taken over somewhat in the last few months. But today I am back, at least for now.

Being a bit (!) mad, I chose the hottest day of the year to mosey on in to London to buy lots of worsted weight yarn. My trip was somewhat delayed by a power cut; I was online this morning checking yarn requirements when the power went off. While the lovely Mildred continued to work, the interwebs went off, so I had to wait until the power was back to check precisely where it was I was trying to go.

First off I headed to Loop. I never went to the old shop, but the new one was certainly lovely. Really light and airy, and set in a great buzzy part of town. There I bought 7 skeins of Cascade 220 (some of it heathered) to knit Astoria.

My pictures are uploading properly today (and the colours didn't come out right anyway!), but it is three skeins of navy, three skeins of pacific heather, and one skein of neutral. I am taking the Sweater Fitness class at Knit Nation and for this you need to know what sweater you want to knit, and have the yarn so that you can swatch in the class - so here we are!

I also went to All the Fun of the Fair - which is more central. I bought two skeins (which I hope will be enought!) of Blue Sky Alpacs Dyed cotton. These are to make a Tulip Cardigan for my new niece or nephew who is due in October.

I also went somewhere and bought some bits for another project - but I will save that for another post (if it works...)!

Lace Tunic

On Wednesday evening, I was speaking to Hubby and discovered that he was due home the next day. This was quite a surprise as I thought he wasn't due home for another week. So, he came home on Thursday but now he has gone again: off for a course in Austin. He's due home again on 4 February and then has a week at home before he goes back to Algeria. It's rubbish and so I am probably going to eat junk and mope for the rest of the day - oh, and knit ;-).

On the knitting front, I have finished the Lace Tunic from Debbie Bliss's Summer. I have come across a couple of tricky points with this. Firstly, having blocked the back, front and first sleeve, I realised that there was no way in which the sleeve was going to fit into the arm hole. The problem was that the bind off on the sleeve was waaay to tight. So, I unpicked the cast off and the last row, and re-worked using a superstretch bind off on needles several size larger. It was a bit of a pain then to set the sleeve but it did fit. Secondly, having pressed the neck band, it was poking up in a strange manner. I have fixed this by threading elastic through the edge. So here it is, modelled by Hermione:

The colour is actually a sort of duck-egg blue - which I couldn't capture, even outside. It has to be said that I wouldn't have been taking Hermione into the garden for a photo shoot if Hubby was still here!

Talking of whom, he has just called from the airport, apparently in order to check that I have got the first load of washing out of the machine (I haven't) and then to tell me that I would need to take the water softener tablet out of its wrapper before I put the second load in. How does he think I cope when he's away?!

Productivity

I have had a very productive day - which means that there is something to blog about. This morning I decided to write a list, and I managed to cross everything off it. I...

• tidied the kitchen;
• tidied the living room;
• tidied the bedroom;
• put away the rubbish that had been accumulating in a basket on the stairs;
• did three loads of washing;
• sorted, photographed and updated my stash;
• packed the christmas decs away ready to go in the loft (they were down but not away);
• put away piles of clean clothes;
• watered the house plants; and
• went shopping.

The result of this is that I am knackered! I have also done some knitting. I am working on a lace tunic made out of Debbie Bliss Prima. The last garment I made from this stuff grew to ridiculous proportions within a week of completion. So far I have finished the back, front and one sleeve. Unfortunately, it doesn't look as though the sleeve is going to fit in the hole designed for it. No-one else on Ravelry has knitted this garment, so I'm a bit stuck now - will just continue with the second sleeve in the vain hope that it will all work out!

While typing this, I am watching Bridget Jones - during which the parallels with Pride and Prejudice are becoming more obvious than previously. Hmm - looking aroud me, it seems that I need to have another go at tidying the sitting room. It has been said before, and it continues to be true - I'm good at tidying up, but not at being tidy.

Happy New Year

I am not a great one for resolutions. However, at this time of the year, it's difficult not to start musing on where you are, where you have been and where you are going. A little while ago on one of the Ravelry groups that I belong too, Claire mentioned the idea of having a word for the year. At that time, it was Samhain, the beginning of the pagan year, and therefore, various of us took that as the beginning of the year, and chose a word.

My word was - and is - grace. Grace is something that I have thought about alot over the last couple of weeks as I have been going through some tough times. Grace is also something that I have needed and doubtless will continue to need. It seems that grace is not something that I am capable of achieving on my own - I can be remarkably ungracious at times, which is why I chose it in the first place. But in God's strenght, I am learning that I can be gracious. It also seems that it is sometimes easier to be gracious in the big things than in the little things (will I ever complete a journey to work in the rush hour without yelling at someone?).

And so my prayer for the new year is for increased grace to help me deal with the things that life throws at me:

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to
change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

God, grant me grace.

Socktopus club socks

Over Christmas, I have been dealing with some rather rubbish stuff, which is why I haven't been making Christmassy blog posts. However, I have also been doing some knitting, and I have finished the Socktopus

club socks. So here they all are!

Wrapping

Just realised that it's over a week since I posted. Oops! Today has been quite productive, although I didn't exactly get up early.

I went to the garden centre and bought a tree, a holly wreath and some mistletoe. I had to repot the tree (tricky since it was frozen) as it was very wonky. How is it that you can buy a tree with roots attached and it will be far from upright. Surely when the tree is in the ground, it's upright? I have also wrapped all the presents I currently have - this does not mean, however, that I have finished the wrapping! And I have blocked Ulmus and my Socktopod socks (piccies to follow).

The Socktopod socks were fun, although I did end up knitting three socks to make the pair. When I was knitting the first one, I noticed that the M1R wasn't working very well and was loopy. When I knitted the second one, I realised I'd put the M1R (and the M1L) in the wrong place - magically, if you put them in the right place, the loopy bits improve! So I finished the second sock and then knit a third. I think the first one is going to turn into a crocodile puppet.

Guess what though - the ironing still needs doing!