Last week’s blog ended with my plans for the week – make some rhubarb jam, plant out the veg seedlings and knit. I’ve achieved one and a half of those – the ‘half’ is that I have at least picked and washed the rhubarb, ready for jam-making tomorrow.
I have done lots of knitting. The single cast-on row I showed you last week is now a piece of knitting over two feet long and I’ve changed colour. The section I’m currently working on has a small pattern repeat and I’m really enjoying seeing the fabric emerge with this repeating lace design worked into it. I’ve also got all the individual stitch patterns written up and charted and the pattern as a whole is being written as I knit. I can’t show it to you yet, but you will see it once it’s published! My deadline is in just under five weeks and it will be published over the autumn/winter.
I’ve also finished a sock of my own design. It’s a textural design that will be in four sizes (I knit the largest size) and will work equally well with solid, semi-solid and multi-coloured yarns. Again, I’m not showing you any details until nearer it’s publication time (October, I think), but I can show you the photo I shared on social media last week when I noticed it was matching my clothes. I’m currently knitting the design in Schoppel Wolle Crazy Zauberball as I figured that if it will work with such a ‘busy’ yarn, it will work with anything!
The Moebius workshop at Yarn O’clock went well on Thursday and it makes me want to design another moebius pattern! I will be doing that I’m sure, but I need to get a few other things off the knitting/designing to do list first… I don’t have any more workshops/knitting classes scheduled yet, but there will definitely be some starting in September, so keep your eyes on the “Where I’ll Be” page!
Do you remember how last week I was so pleased that I’d managed to do yarn shows on two consecutive weekends? That was followed by a single day out for me and my patterns this past Saturday. I was at the Cheshire Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers‘ Friendship Day in Frodsham Community Centre. It’s a lovely venue and the ladies there were very friendly, welcoming and helpful. Seeing some familiar faces among the other vendors was great too!
I even got to have a double table length, which has supported my feeling that I need to book a larger stand size for future events where possible. Here’s a comparison:
Left: Buxton 2m x 2m, Right: Wool at J13 2m x 2m
Cheshire Guild WSD 4m x approx 1.5m
What do you think? I will have a 4m x 2m space at the Pop-up Wool Show in Port Sunlight on 19th August which will be lovely. A larger stand space generally costs more as you might expect, so it’s a case of working out whether it will work economically for each event I do. I was really lucky that the Cheshire Guild only asked for 10% of takings rather than a table fee and offered me a double table space on arrival. And there was still a full bag of samples left at home!
After three events on the trot, it seems really odd that the next show isn’t for another three months. I think I might get withdrawal symptoms as I really do enjoy the buzz of a wool show. But as well as enabling me to work through my future and semi completed design plans, it will allow me to do more of the ‘house’ things I want to get done, such as making jam and planting out seedlings.
We also had one of those unexpected, and less fun, house things to deal with over the past couple of days – our toilet flush broke! We now have a completely new mechanism installed in the cistern and we’re just waiting for our neighbour (who specialises in kitchens and bathrooms and is an absolute star) to pop back later on and finish attaching the lever/flush handle to the cistern itself rather than it poke out the top and then the lid can go back on. (Because things are never entirely simple are they? The lever that came with the unit wouldn’t unscrew so we ended driving back to Wickes yesterday evening to get that bit replaced. They were very helpful!). It was such a joy to have a working toilet again last night and it will be even more of a delight to have it all back to normal and tidy as well.
What simple things have brought you joy this week? K x