Category entries for Knitting and Crochet
Saturday October 26, 2024
Knitting in Shoreham-by-Sea
Today I went on a little tour of the south coast by public transport - a trip down memory lane. The Shoreham Knitting and Needlecraft store were having an open day with Martin Storey and ... well I couldn't resist could I? Apparently they were the first independent yarn store in the UK to stock Rowan yarns, and I first went there in the 1980s.
I spent a few happy hours there, gushing over Martin and purchasing the latest Rowan book (and, inevitably, some wool!), before nipping along the coast to Chichester to meet my sister for lunch, after which it was off home by train and bus. A thoroughly satisfying day's outing.
I was very pleased to find that the Rowan magazine (76) has a big feature on the Textile Garden of whom I have long been a fan with their beautiful buttons.
Martin getting down to the serious business of book signing! [Note him sporting "Shoal" from the Union Collection - currently on sale from English Yarns.]
Friday October 25, 2024
Box Hill Knitters
Today was knitting and crochet at Box Hill but there's a lot of "craft creep" in our groups, and to prove it, here we have Jan, working away as a highly skilled beader. She had a lot of astonishingly lovely pieces of 3-D work with her - but the chess set was just amazing.
[The mis-placement of the pieces is entirely down to me!]
Sunday February 26, 2023
Unravel 2023
A pleasing day in Farnham, where I met up with a few Guild friends, and we did show and tell on our purchases.
I was also delighted to find Black Isle Yarns who - seriously - could not have been more helpful in aiding me in my search for a white (ish) tweed to use for a long-planned pom-pom sweater (planned since about 1968...!). I wish they were located more handily, but seeing the photos on their website, maybe I wish it were I that were located more handily ...
Of course, I'd planned to buy nothing, but was seduced by some delicious yarn from Zakami. No idea how I shall use it - so far squishing and stroking it seem ideal.
Saturday February 12, 2022
Unravel 2022
After just squeezing in a trip to Unravel in 2020, about 2 weeks before everything shut down for the duration, we are back again for the reopening in 2022. We had lunch at the Giggling Squid before starting on our retail experience, and almost immediately met some friends for a cup of tea once in the Maltings.
Having got our priorities right, we then did actually buy some yarn - I got my usual couple of balls of sock yarn (as if I had not had my fill of socks lately!), and then in a surprise departure, bought some skeins from The Knitting Shed and Debonnaire, with a plan to make shawls/wraps. The yarns below are variously merino, silk, and mohair.
Monday December 20, 2021
Reindeer Cardigans
I saw this pattern and could not resist it.
No, I don't want to actually make it - The Man already has a cardigan lovingly created by yours truly some years ago. No, that's not the reason.... it's because it matches the child's version that I posted as POM for November in 2012.
Described as a "Western Frontier Jacket in Big Ben" it appears to be the absolute identical pattern - word for word - just knitted in thicker wool. Needless to say I shall be posting it alongside the child's version in the near future.
And on the subject of reindeer cardigans, I have made a mini-me version of the one I made in 2011 - so grandfather and granddaughter can be twinnies over Christmas. I transposed the background pattern from the Martin Storey adult's pattern on to a "Scandinavian" cardigan from a vintage Vogue "Knitting on the Go" book Toddler Knits. The cardigan is too small to work the reindeer from Martin's pattern, so I returned to "Chart B" from the child's version of the vintage P&B pattern (referenced above), knitting a blank panel on the fronts, on to which I could swiss-darn embroider the little reindeer.
To "cap" it all (pun fully intended) I made a girl's hat from a vintage "silver" P&B booklet in the same colours. Whether said girl will tolerate wearing it is another matter.... but it is fun.
More posts in this category
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Thursday December 16, 2021
A little supplement
I’ve acquired a tiny vintage Stitchcraft Gift Book – originally given free with the monthly magazine for November 1953. Obviously these booklets were very easily cast adrift from their mother craft so I have never seen it before, but it’s in amazingly good condition. The thing that impresses me most is how many items are […]
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Saturday October 9, 2021
Knitting and Stitching at Alexandra Palace
The show was, by necessity, a bit restricted this year – and even though in many respects there was plenty to see, (because in a “normal” year you don’t even get round to see half of it, as it’s so overwhelming), everything was very spaced out and there were fewer visitors. This was good for […]
