Tuesday October 31st, 2006
All man but no trousers
I've been involved with this guy for a couple of days now;
it's been heady and exciting ... but somehow not quite real.
Maybe we've been seeing too much of each other.
I feel it's time to call a halt.
Nice legs though.
Saturday October 28th, 2006
Furrowed brow
I have started another project from Rowan book 40, called Furrow. I liked the Dotty slipover so much that I thought Furrow would also be nice to knit, being made of Tapestry, Kid classic, and Wool-cotton. I thought the pattern was nice stripey rows made interesting by the self colouring wool patterns and some purl stitching giving additional texture. Turns out, it is some mad pattern involving slipping blocks of stitches on alternate pairs of rows, and stranding the yarn across the back of the work. The effect is quite pleasing but does not seem to warrant all the complexity.
Saturday October 21st, 2006
A sheep in clover…
What a fantastic day I have had.
I went to join the nearest Spinners Guild, which after some research turned out to be "Creative Fibres" Group for East Surrey. They sounded small but they meet monthly in Headley Village Hall, which is (as I proved this morning) about a 4 minute drive from my house. As luck would have it, this month was their annual "Open Day", and that being the case I did not expect to stay too long. However it was so fantastic I stayed all day and had a great time. I was hoping it might be enjoyable, but it exceeded my expectations in every way.
They are involved in many different fibre crafts, have experts in every discipline and run regular workshops, and are a jolly welcoming group of people. I am so looking forward to being a member. They also have a separate Spinners group, that get together monthly in Ashstead, and I met several of them there, (with their wheels). To a man (or woman - only one brave man showed up to look around), they seemed to favour the Ashford "Joy" wheel, eulogising about how easily portable it is compared with "all the other wheels" they each seemed to own!
Here is their display table showing weaving, cards, knitting, (which includes spinning and dying the wool), braiding, silk paper, and a home made frame for Kumihimo braiding.
In case any of you are thinking of keeping sheep, I should point out that clover isn't too good for them it seems, as described in Far from the Madding Crowd.
See many more photos from the day in the extended entry.
Creative Fibres
Open Day
|
Group |
Peg Loom |
Pam's Work |
Carding |
Carding |
Carding |
Inkle Loom |
Sharron |
Iris |
Anne |
Mavis |
Marudai |
DIY Marudai |
Pam and Betty |
Display |
Saturday October 14th, 2006
Urban Decay
I have just returned from the dentist. No - no - it's better than that... I was just there to provide supportive transport for Robert, who finally had to have his last wisdom tooth removed.
Here he is with Mike Deasy, who has provided our dental treatment for the last 15 years or so, at the Bushy Park Dental Practice in Hampton, Surrey. Mike is a great guy, and it's always a pleasure to see him (apart from the actual treatment thing).
Friday October 13th, 2006
Alexandra Palace and the Knitting and Stitchery show 2006.
The great day has arrived!
I have been so looking forward to this - and at the same time I can hardly
believe it's October already.
I set off with George's Mother, Sheila, as usual at around 7:45, driving through Richmond Park and up through Kew; it's lovely in the park at this time of year - the deer are rutting, (as we have been shown all week on the TV in "Autumn Watch" and can now see here without going up to Scotland). We finally arrived at the Palace in good time just before 10. They changed the parking again this year, so we were able to park in a nice little spot just at the back of the palace; I hope this does not indicate a lower attendance - they are running an extra event this year at the NEC and I would be sad if they abandon the London venue.
In the entrance hall we found an amusing exhibit; the Ferrari was entirely
knitted, supported on a wire netting frame underneath. Sheila took my
picture next to it. I am wearing "Elspeth"
from Rowan 37.
"Elspeth" is designed to be knitted in Calmer, which is a wool I like a lot, but I chose to use Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino because I wanted this true cherry red colour. Calmer is a sort of Aran weight yarn whereas the Cashmerino is 4 or 5 ply (quick knit, fine double knitting.... whatever). I ended up knitting it at least 4 times (due to my tension changes and because this style needs to be more tight fitting than I would choose normally) and had lots of fun with the crochet edging (because Rowan do not see fit to give you any guidance as to how many stitches to pick up - 1:1 is too many, and different ratios apply according to which part of the edge you are doing). I also knitted it about an inch longer than designed.
All this effort on "Elspeth" was well worth it as both Debbie
Bliss and Jane Waller commented on how nice my knitted top looked (dog
with 2 tails, I was). I must say what a really nice lady Debbie Bliss
is - she, and her companions on her stand, are so cheerful and pleasant
and seem really interested in everyone's satisfaction in their knitted
projects. Two or three years ago at the show, I purchased both pattern
and wool for a cardigan, entirely because of her attitude and her encouragement
to try the display model - she also gave me lots of good advice as to
what size it was knitted in and how it might differ from the pattern.
I cannot emphasise enough how good it is to see your favourite designers
making what must be such an effort with the public. I remember Kaffe Fassett
years ago responding, with such good grace, to an audience asking him
endless questions about knitting rather, than what he is really skilled
in, which is design.
I had not met Jane Waller before, and she is also simply charming. It seems that, unbeknownst to me, she is a ceramicist mainly but I know her from her books on knitting. She specialises in reproducing old patterns and showing them knitted in modern wools. I purchased her books in the 1980s "Thirties Family Knitting Book" and "A Stitch in Time". I found her at the show in the Woman's Weekly Cafe with a fantastic display of knitted items from her new book "The 1940s Knitting Pattern Book"; she also had some of her source materials on display: Stitchcraft magazines - how wonderful! Irritatingly for her, the publishers had failed to publish her book in time for the show, or I, for one, would have taken it at once! It is due to be published on October 27th. She did mention that she would like her old books to be republished, and I can only whole-heartedly agree - they seem to change hands on eBay for tidy sums.
The show this year had, as expected, far more emphasis on wools and fibres than in previous years. When we first came about 6 years ago, at Sheila's instigation, it included the Quilt Show, but this has now moved to an event of its own run in August. There are still enough fabric stalls to interest Sheila, though, and she thinks she might do more knitting in the future - last year we attended a crochet workshop at the show but none of these events interested us this year.
See Sheila, left, (note snazzy quilted bag), at the Knitting and Crochet Guild learning finger knitting.
I notice that the fibres and general thrust of the show is less oriented towards knitting conventional clothing, but far more towards fibre art work, with specialist fibres available in tiny quantities, more suitable for, say, embroidery, weaving, felting etc.
In the extended entry see photo albums of the show, and a felting demonstration. Click on the thumbnails for larger views.
After the foggy start to the morning, this was the fantastic vista from
the palace when we left at 5 o'clock. We could see the Gherkin, the Post
Office Tower, the London Eye, and, I think, St Pauls. Don't strain your
eyes to check, though, as only the Gherkin is visible in this picture,
(in the middle of the 2 trees on the right).
See many more photos from the show below.
Here are some pictures of the show - click on the thumbnails to page through the album.
Alexandra Palace
|
Knitted Ferrari |
Spin, Weave |
Fabric Folding |
Rag Rugs I |
Rag Rugs II |
Quilters |
Lacemakers |
Braiders |
Milliners |
Patchwork |
Sashiko I |
Sashiko II |
Me in cardigan |
Rose Violet |
Wool Tops |
"Felt Better"
|
Felt1.JPG |
Felt2.JPG |
Felt3.JPG |
Felt4.JPG |
Felt5.JPG |
Felt6.JPG |
Felt7.JPG |
Felt8.JPG |
Felt9.JPG |
FeltA.JPG |
If you have a video-enabled browser, you can roll the cursor over the picture below for a little animation.
Wednesday October 11th, 2006
Spotted leopards
Here is George, delightedly playing with the best birthday present in the world, (from his Mother, I might say).
In case you are wondering, it's a Butter Wizard from Alfille which you can buy on line; he has been longing for one of these ever since he first found it on the web. I am not so keen on gadgets - but it is functional - that's all the praise it gets from me - but it's not my birthday.
You may notice that he is wearing the pullover I knitted for him without his expressing too many symptoms of distress- ["I'm not wearing a tank top; I won't, I won't!"] - I mean, I didn't have to force his little arms into it or anything like that. It is a Kaffe Fassett design from the latest Rowan book 40 (page down on the linked page to see "Dotty"), which is possibly still available on eBay, and is knitted in Felted Tweed and Tapestry. It was a joy to knit (relatively simple) and feels wonderful.
More details about the knitting below :
I knitted the smallest size for Dotty and it came out easily to fit
George for whom a 42 inch chest would be normal. I noticed that it
knitted up to a larger gauge than quoted, although normally my tension
is standard according to the needle gauge and wool thickness. This
is a Fair Isle technique, though, and typically this comes out tighter
than straight knitting, for which I try and compensate by knitting
loosely (as in "strand the threads loosely across the back"); it may
be that Rowan accounted for tight knitting in the tension quoted.
The original is in rather nice shades of brown, but when the right
Felted Tweed colour finally arrived in John Lewis, they had sold out
of the recommended Tapestry colour. As the birthday was fast approaching,
I went ahead with it in two shades of blue instead and it has worked
out quite well.
I think this project would also work out well in black and grey.
A word on the wool quantities:
The pattern calls for 4 balls in each of the two main colours, and
I used only 3 balls of the Tapestry for the size I knitted - by a
long way - and took one back.
Worse, (on the budget), the pattern also calls for 2 further balls
of two different contrasting colours. The first is used only to
cast on the stitches (!). The second to do the first two rows
of the welt. They are also used to finish off the neck and sleeve
bands in the same way. You could miss the rows out altogether, and
knit the welts plain but I am against this; I think these little touches
really add to the design (as Kaffe knows best, I'm sure). However
I am very mean about these things - this tiny detail adds on up to
30% to the cost. So I would urge anyone to try and find a substitute
among their wool oddments - you don't need much. I think I would have
found it hard to find the browns but for my colour scheme I would
have had to choose my own colours anyway; for the cast on row I used
a completely plain black double knitting wool (Patrons Clansman pure
wool), and for the second contrast, I was lucky that I had some pale
grey Rowan Felted Tweed left over from another project.
A word on the Tapestry wool:
You may need to be warned that the pattern that you achieve in the
Tapestry wool depends on the number of stitches in the row, rather
like the self-patterning sock wools. This is easily visible in the
photos of the items in Rowan book 40 (see, for example, "Serge" in
the web link given above). With Dotty, you get different patterns
in the spots as you decrease for the neck, and, consequently also
the patterning is asymmetric on each side of the neck.
I did not like this for Dotty (although, it is nice in some of the
patterns) so I went to tedious lengths to avoid it. I knitted across
both sides of the neck together (both on the needles at the same time,
using separate balls of wool for the background), and I kept breaking
the Tapestry wool at the V neck edge, and sewed in these ends once
I had finished. This meant the dyed pattern on the wool progressed
evenly up each side of the neck. I preferred this outcome, but I can
also see that some people (Kaffe?) may prefer the asymmetric design.
Saturday October 7th, 2006
Visions of humanity
Have just returned from the Royal Academy exhibition "Modigliani and his models", and (as Rob observed), my head is just full...
Unlike Kandinsky, Modigliani's work is much more accessible and I am particularly keen on it.
This is the last week of the exhibition so we turned up at 10 and queued for tickets, but did not have much of a problem getting in, and managed to escape before it became too crowded. Quite a contrast to when I was last there for Monet, which was hopelessly popular.
We began our tour in the last gallery (again, as a crowd avoidance measure - it works until you get back to gallery 1). However, it was desperately sad to hear about the end of his life and even more so that of his lover Jeanne Hébuterne - too sad to talk about here.
This portrait is an unnamed "Woman with a red necklace", painted in 1918. Text quoted from the gallery descriptions best sums up his work I feel: "His mastery in these portraits lies in his ability to retain the essential likeness of an individual while couching her likeness in his own restricted vocabulary of forms."
Thursday October 5th, 2006
Clink Street
I went to London today, arriving as usual at London Bridge station, and
walking along the south bank of the river (as usual) towards the Globe
(next to the Tate Modern, where I had been not 2 weeks ago). No doubt
I took a slightly different route to the river, but I am now left thinking
that I must have previously been walking around with my eyes shut - or
that London offers too many wonders to be fully appreciated by a lady
from Surrey.
First of all I noticed a number of grand ecclesiastical buildings, which
turned out to be (of course) Southwark cathedral no less - more like cathedrals
abroad, being stuck right up against many other buildings so you can't
step away and appreciate its architecture.
Next I happened upon a replica of the Golden
Hind - thinking "this looks like an old ship" in a rather
dull early-morning sort of way - so I stopped to read the notices.
Finally I passed the ruin of the Winchester Palace, which is at the junction of Clink street and Stoney Street. Only one wall survives, really, but it is very open to view from the street, as there have been archealogical excavations there in the past revealing Roman remains on the same site. I was going to add a photo but Mr Monkey describes his experience so much better.
Educational History: Winchester Palace, completed in the 1140s, was the London residence of the Bishop of Winchester for over 500 years. Many important visitors were entertained here – King James I held his wedding banquet att the Palace. It was used as a prison from 1649 to 1660 and was then leased for housing. Destroyed by fire in 1814, now only the west wall with its 14th century Rose Window survives.
