The past few weeks have been a patchwork of working really hard and relaxing in different places.
Part of my set-up practice for Popup Wool Show shows the different colour yarns I will have with me for Nos Da kits and also the gorgeous colours of laceweight available for my various lace designs, including Drifting Leaves (attached to the left side of the table).
Nos Da and Drifting Leaves with yarn
The floor plan of the show has been published and I’m delighted to see I’m right next to Lottieknits – she has such wonderful colours in her hand dyed yarn.
Popup Wool Show Floor Plan
We were in Pershore recently and I acquired this bag at a cool shop called Follyies. It’s perfect for a large sweater quantity project – and has an internal zipped pocket to keep the bits and bobs safe.
‘My Doris’ bag
We had a little day trip to Chirk last week and bravely walked across the aqueduct which is right next to the viaduct! There’s also a patch on the canal path where you can stand with one foot in Wales and the other in England! Apparently that’s unique on the UK waterways.
Ronnie by Chirk Viaduct (whilst on Chirk Aqueduct!)
When visiting family we often stay in a Premier Inn, but sometimes it’s nice to treat ourselves. This is the view from our room at The Crescent Turner near Whitstable. You can see the sea and this room has its own little terrace to chill on!
View from our room by day
And the sunsets were magnificent! There was one tree that was silhouetted against the sky with the colours shading between blue and orange – it could almost have been an African skyline!! Sadly I didn’t get a photo of that detail.
View from our room at sunset
Ronnie continued his adventures and decided to do his impression of The Lady of Shalott over a clear running patch of river in Canterbury. He’s getting far more adventurous in his old age (he’s been with us for 20 years now!).
Ronnie trying to be The Lady of Shalott
I have even been able to get some knitting done that I can share with you! This sock has made excellent progress and should be finished in a day or so. The trans flag stripe is from a whole skein of Trans Pride Flag yarn from The Knitting Goddess. She sells little ‘stripey stripes’ too which are two sections of yarn containing one full flag each, but I wanted to get a whole skein so I could do more. These socks will be a gift for one of our niblings and they have been gamely trying on the sock in progress so I can ensure a good fit!
Sock for nibling coming on!
One of the drawbacks of writing my blog on my phone seems to be that I can’t include links – but I will add them in as soon as I get access to my laptop again. [eta – links now done!]
I hope you’ve enjoyed the mix of pics today! Take care and keep hydrated, K x
The past few days have been mostly about prepping for the Pop-Up Wool Show at Hulme Hall in Port Sunlight on August 20th. I’ve been checking my stocks of kits, gift tag sets, patterns etc and making lots and lots of lists! I’m quite proud of my kits. They all come with a cotton project bag, metal stitch markers (if needed and the correct number for the pattern), a printed pattern and yarn in majority natural fibres.
Today a folding 6 foot table was delivered. Not only do the legs fold away, but the whole thing folds in half so it can fit in the car!
I’ve also borrowed back lots of knitted samples from Yarn O’clock and borrowed a couple of little stands to add to my display set-up.
The Mini Socks Advent Calendar looks great on the tree!
Mini Socks Advent Calendar, Kath Andrews, on tree
I also took pics of it hung on the mantlepiece and a door, as not everyone has a tree they can hang 24 mini socks on.
Mini Socks Advent Calendar, Kath Andrews, hung on mantlepieceMini Socks Advent Calendar, Kath Andrews, hung on door
The kits are all made up and include stitch markers and the tags for the numbers, as well as 10cm pieces of ribbon to tie them to the hanging loops and one long piece of ribbon to hang them from.
This is what a four colour kit looks like:
Mini Socks Advent Calendar Kit Pinks
The striped sock has been test knit (by Anne at Yarn O’clock) and she made hers super stripy, as one of her yarns was variegated. Doesn’t it look cute?
Striped Sock from Mini Socks Advent Calendar
There have been a few things happening this week that are not wool show related. I finished the Morse Code Cowl! It is currently drying having had a bath this morning. I was very pleasantly surprised that no dye emerged while it was soaking, despite the yarns being such deep saturated colours – excellent yarn from The Travel Knitter.
Morse Code Cowl Front, poem by Sue Finch, knitting by Kath Andrews
Morse Code Cowl Back, poem by Sue Finch, knitting by Kath Andrews
I know the poem will be impossible to read, partly as it curves around the cowl, partly as it’s in Morse Code and partly as there is not a lot of contrast between the two yarn colours, but it’s satisfying to know that it really is Sue’s poem. This is the actual poem that I knitted into the cowl:
This Was Once a Good Poem
but it has eaten cheese and pickle rolls for a week now
and it can’t work out why the vitamins aren’t working.
It rocks in the chair until its eyes are too tired to see
and has scared itself with thoughts of Autumn spiders
under glasses in the hallway.
It is wondering if it is true that conkers in corners
keep arachnids at bay
and is now standing in the dark
sniffing last year’s horse chestnuts
desperate to find their scent.
Sue Finch
I also took delivery of some yarn for a project I won’t be able to show you for AGES, but it’s going to be a fun one. The yarn is gorgeous – Fleece from West Yorkshire Spinners in Ecru and Fellside – and I’m looking forward to casting on later today.
West Yorkshire Spinners Fleece in Ecru and Fellside
We harvested our broad beans at the weekend, along with the first two of our squashes/courgettes. The broad beans were pitiful in quantity, but tasted good. This is the entire crop in the left-hand photo!
Broad Bean HarvestFirst of the Squashes
And on a slightly less healthy, but very fun, note – did you know you can now get BLUE Jammie Dodgers?! They are filled with coloured, berry-flavoured apple jam.
Blue Jammie Dodgers!
Anyway, today’s post was going to be a short one – but it doesn’t seem to have turned out that way! Take care one and all, and if you happen to be in the Port Sunlight area on August 20th it would be great to see you!
If you follow me on social media (Twitter, Instagram or Facebook), you will have seen my post yesterday explaining that this week’s blog post would be delayed a day. If you’ve been waiting and didn’t know, I’m sorry. It will be worth the wait though, promise!
On Sunday I went to Wonderwool at the Royal Welsh Showground, Builth Wells. It has long been my favourite yarn show, partly because the scale of the buildings means you can move about freely and there are plenty of areas of seating as well as a HUGE number of vendors exhibiting their wares.
It was wonderful and slightly overwhelming to be back at a real live yarn show. It’s the first one I’ve been to since Yarndale in September 2019, in the ‘before times’ and I haven’t seen this many human beings in one day since then. There were people who I’ve only communicated with online before, via Zoom or social media, that I was able to talk to face to face for the first time. I think it says something about how effective Zoom and FaceTime are that it didn’t feel as though I hadn’t ‘met’ some of these people ‘in the flesh’ before.
So, as you can see from the main image, I came back with quite a haul of goodies. Let’s have a look at them, shall we?
Fibre for spinning first!
This is a wonderful braid of British Bluefaced Leicester dyed by Sealy MacWheely. It was my first purchase of the day and the colours and softness just made me grin. That and the lovely Katie who dyed it was so great to chat to. 😊 I’m thinking a chain ply would give me a great striped yarn, but I might just do a 2-ply and go for some funky barber-pole stripes.
This little beauty is a Merino gradient dyed by Cassiopeia Yarns. Again, it’s utterly soft and I’m going to adore spinning it. This one is definitely going to be chain plied as I want to maintain the gorgeous gradient effect from one end to the other. Maybe superfine for a lace shawl?
Rachael from Cat and Sparrow sold me this wonderful braid of Polwarth. The colourway is called ‘Ar Lan y Môr’ which is Welsh for ‘Beside the Sea’ and it is also the name of a traditional Welsh folk song. It was only today that I realised this is the same colourway I bought from her before via the online version of the Knit-Tea Retreat last year, which is now a yarn that Mum is gradually knitting into a cowl! Rachael is one of the people it was hard to believe I’d never met ‘in real life’ before as we’ve chatted online quite a bit and it was super to chat face to face on Sunday.
I’d not come across Velvet Sixpence before, but this braid told me it was definitely coming home with me! Another Polwarth (SO soft and a delight to spin), I think this one is going to become something for my lovely wife, as orange is very much her colour.
So, that was the fibre – now on to the yarn!
The first ball of yarn that came into my possession on Sunday was free!! I went up to the Simply Knitting / The Knitter stand and was offered the opportunity to spin the wheel. Whichever colour the arrow landed on indicated the basket from which I could select a ball of yarn. Cool, eh? I was delighted to find this ball of self-striping Novita yarn. It’s an aran weight 75% wool, 25% polyamide which will make either some chunky bedsocks or a hat. The yarn is actually striped with three distinct shades of blue and a green, although at first glance you might think the palest blue is white. And I had a chat with Kirstie and the ladies too!
Now this yarn is something special. Northampton Shear laceweight yarn from Riverknits. It was lovely to meet Becci and Markus in person and chat away. Again, I encountered them first through the Knit-Tea Retreat and then followed them on social media (that sounds a bit like stalking, doesn’t it? I promise it wasn’t!). Markus joined in with our most recent KAL – Calon Cariad – and he knit his from this very yarn. The shawl was on display as part of their stall which was very exciting to see and I wish I’d taken a photo – though you can see it if you look at the Riverknits Instagram page. Northampton Shear is a single ply yarn that is 100% Shetland wool from Braunston, Northamptonshire that is spun & hand dyed in the UK. The way the dye is picked up over the natural colours of the wool is stunning, giving a really, rich layered effect.
This skein of ‘Dark Forest’ from Mothy and the Squid was one of the later purchases of the day. I love the range of greens in the yarn and also the black that stripes through it in places. Being a Superwash Merino / nylon mix this will make long lasting socks, but it is also soft and silky enough for something close to your neck.
I’d not heard of The Crafty Bird before, but the range of colours she had were lovely. This is ‘Crisp Autumn Day’. It’s another Superwash Merino / Nylon mix, but it’s a different base from the green above. It’s also slightly thinner as 100g brings a very generous 425m.
I love Kauni yarns with the really long colour shifts, though I’ve only used their 4-ply so far. SKD Yarns sell this and it’s really quite funny to have travelled nearly 100 miles to buy a ball of yarn from people who are based less than five miles from where I live! The colours are really me. It was my cheapest wool purchase of the day, at £8.42 for 800m laceweight – an absolute bargain!
I’ve made a pair of Raggsocks from a kit from Midwinter Yarns before and they are my mum’s favourite bedsocks, guaranteed to fit no matter what her ankles are up to. So, I thought I would make another pair and this colourway is just right for her. Mr Midwinter looked very dashing in his kilt and I spoke to a lovely lady (not Estelle, but possibly her mum) who almost got me buying a sweater’s worth of their Ulligen Recycled Yarn (made from scraps of wool from the textiles industry that would otherwise go to waste) for a ‘Confetti’ sweater by Veera Valimaki. I resisted the urge (just about), but I’m sure it’s a yarn I will be using at some point – it was fab.
Finally, there were some non-wool purchases – apart from the cup of tea and vegan fruit cake that were very much appreciated!
First off all, I bought a pattern from Anniken Allis and had a nice chat with her. I know I design lace shawls myself, but this is a shape I’ve neither knitted nor used myself before and it really intrigues me. The lace patterns in it are beautiful too. I think the wedge shape in the centre makes it a Faroese style shawl. Maybe I will use some of the laceweight yarn I bought on Sunday for it and make a double Wonderwool momento!
As I was travelling from Wonderwool to Mum’s on Sunday afternoon, and it was her birthday on Monday, I really wanted to be able to find her a little gift from the show as part of her birthday present. These hand coiled coasters from Lilliputwight were perfect! They’re in the centre of the picture here. Unfortunately I didn’t take a separate photo of them before I left Mum’s yesterday. She is very happy with them – particularly as they go very well with her quilted placemats and the coiled rope means they have a much more ‘grabby’ surface than the glossy picture coasters she has, making them practical as well as beautiful.
You couldn’t miss the amazing hand-turned pot in the picture above, could you? It’s stunning and the blue/green is from two resin inserts that were sandwiched into the wood before turning. This was a gift for Sue, my lovely wife. It was given immediate pride of place among her pen pots (which is what I thought she would use it for), though I’ve yet to show her the magic that occurs when you place a light inside the pot – it glows through the resin! The pot was from Turning Amber Woodcraft, the husband to All Wool that Ends Wool who were right at the end of Hall 2.
What a haul, eh? As well as talking to lots of stallholders, one of the lovely things about a show like this is striking up conversation with likeminded people when you sit down for a cup of tea. I encountered several friends during the day as well which was great – it’s always good to see some familiar faces in a crowd!
Yarn shows are also a place where you can wear your hand-knits knowing they’ll be appreciated by others for the work that has gone into it as well as the colour of the yarn or pretty shape.
I chose to wear my Meg March shawl and got so many compliments on it. I know that knitters always want to know the pattern name of pieces they admire, so I went prepared by taking some of my Moo business cards. I’m glad I did as I ended up handing out quite a few and even sold two copies of the pattern during the day to people I’d spoken to! (Thanks Sealy MacWheely and Roy!).
It was quite a day – a real grand day out. Wearing a mask for the whole day was no problem – though I did nearly forget I was wearing it at one point when I went to sip my water – that could have been messy.
So, you can see why after that and a couple of days at Mum’s I was not really capable of writing this post when I got home yesterday evening – it’s taken two and a half hours as it is!!
The rest of today will be spent catching up with stuff, patting yarn and fibre and continuing to work on the still photos for my new online course.
Take care, stay safe and do what makes you happy, K x
Much knitting progress has happened this week and I can actually share some of it with you today!
I am really enjoying my Get Garter Beret from Woolly Wormhead and I am now two thirds complete on it, having worked four of the six panels. It’s a sideways knit beret that’s also on the bias and the crown shaping is achieved with short row shaping. When I had done two panels I was convinced it was never going to be big enough, but with four completed I am a lot more confident. The yarn, Neps and Tatties from Ewe & Ply in ‘Raisin Girl’ is fantastic and I really like the little ‘neps’ in cream and brown that randomly poke out of the surface of the knitting.
Sue has been asking for a Woodstock (Snoopy’s pal) from the kit that came with Knit Now Issue 133. Last night I knitted all the pieces, which took just over half an hour. I think it’s going to take longer than that to assemble! It doesn’t look much like Woodstock at the moment, just seven small, scrappy bits of knitting… Hopefully by next week I’ll have something more bird shaped to show you.
The baking is continuing and my loaves are getting quite consistent now which is very encouraging! I think the problem previously was a combination of too much water and over-proving the dough. I’ve even managed to use up most of the jar of discard I accumulated while getting Audrey2 up to full strength; this week we’ve had vegan sourdough banana bread and seeded sourdough crackers, both of which have been lovely. I haven’t taken any photos of them though.
On the ‘secret knitting’ front, I have finished the first item!! Half of it has been blocked and the other half is currently taking up residence on the lounge floor. It took me an hour and a quarter to pin out this morning. The trickiest part was in working out what measurements to pin it to. I know the final measurements I want, but I also knew that this particular project would ‘relax’ after being unpinned, so I needed to block it larger than I wanted it to end up. Adding 10% to the width seems to have done the trick.
On Sunday I cast on for the second secret project. I’d done two rows when it occurred to me that as I’d not used this yarn before (and the ball band says it whitens and fluffs up after washing and blocking) it would be a good idea to do a couple of swatches to make sure the needle size I’d originally intended to use would work with this yarn. I tried the intended size and a couple of sizes larger in case any ‘fluffiness’ obscured the design. Both actually looked good, although the original needle size gave the main fabric more stability, so I’ve stuck with it and now I’ve done a couple of inches of the main project. It’s going to be gorgeous though I say it myself.
Do you remember I said that this yarn had been spun ‘in the grease’ and smelt wonderfully sheepy? Having lanolin still in the fibres has already had a good effect on my hands and some of the splits are healing – hurray! I’m looking forward to getting really stuck into this project and also hoping to try out some more of their yarns in the future. I’m also looking forward to being able to show you what I’ve been doing – but it will be another seven months before I can do that!
At least five of the roses are still in flower and the fuchsias are looking very blousy! It’s weird how warm it still is a lot of the time (sometimes it seems warmer outside than in!), and the birds are really enjoying themselves in the bushes, pecking little creatures from the stems. Various parts of the garden still need tidying up before the winter, like doing the last mow and cutting down the crocosmia, and I’m hoping the weather continues to hold until after I’ve met my first deadline which is just under two weeks away.
That’s all from me today. Stay safe and do more of what makes you happy. K x
