Monthly Archives: February 2020

Unravel

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On Friday afternoon, I was happy to spend a few hours at the Unravel festival of yarn in Farnham.  It was the first day of the weekend festival, and yet there were so many people there – it was lively and fun, and we both had a great time.  I wandered around looking at everything until I realised that I had only 40 minutes left to shop, and then I went a little wild.  Here is my complete haul:

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Surprisingly, most of it was not yarn.  I bought Felicity Ford’s Stranded Colourwork Sourcebook, a book I had wanted for a long time.  We stopped and chatted at the BIPOC in Fiber booth, and were happy to purchase a canvas tote and pin to help show our support for diversity in the knitting community.

I bought three knitting bags from Pink Hazel.  One is a project bag, and the other two are needle holders – one for DPNs and one for interchangeable needles.  I asked Doug which one I should buy, and he said “Buy all three”.  This might be an indication of the the mess that my needles are currently in, or the fact that I can never find a particular needle when I need one.

I bought six skeins of Kettle Yarn Beyul DK, a blend of Baby Yak, Silk, and Ethical SW Merino,  in a lovely sandy grey shade.  I have a particular project in mind for this, of which more later.

I spent some time admiring the buttons at Textile Garden, and couldn’t resist buying these unusual ones:

I had a lovely time chatting with others. I was completely thrilled to meet Jeanette Sloan, who is not only a talented designer but is also charming and friendly.  (I love her latest book, Warm Hands, co-edited with Kate Davies.)  I spent some time with Jen and Jim Arnall-Culliford (that’s me and Jen below):

One of the best things about a yarn festival is that there are so many samples to try on and to fondle.  I particularly liked this cowl from The Little Grey Sheep:

(There is a pullover to match the cowl which is fantastic, and which Emma has already claimed an interest in.  Now that I’ve seen it in person, it has moved up my list.)

I was also thrilled to see a knitted sample of Olga Buraya-Kefelian’s shawl, Koko.  I was 80% decided to knit this shawl, and now that I have seen it in person, I like it even more:

I’d love to post more photos from the festival.  Unfortunately, I asked Doug to take on the role of photographer, and when I came home nearly all of the photos were of me handing over my credit card:

Doug apparently thought this was funny.

For his part, Doug seemed just as happy to wander around and chat with exhibitors.  Later that evening, when we arrived home, I discovered that Doug had bought me the really cool Flight of Stitch Markers from Coco Knits.  Also, wrapped up in a small package slipped among the other goodies, was a gorgeous sterling silver shawl pin, crafted by Lyn Roberts Design:

It is clear that I should always take Doug with me when I attend a yarn fair!

All these lovely knitting goodies, and I have a new project on my needles to boot:

I’ve had a nice, relaxing yarn-filled weekend.  I hope that you have as well.

The “Cool Boots” Shawl goes Neutral!

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Here is my finished version of the Cool Boots Shawl in neutrals:

I designed this pattern a few years ago and offered it for free on the blog to celebrate my 300th post.  The original was knit in shades of red, coral, and fuchsia in fingering weight wool:

I am a bright colours kind of girl and I love this original version – I have worn it everywhere – but I had an inkling that it would also be great in neutral tones.  I had some beautiful skeins of Blue Sky Fibers Metalico in Opal, Gold Dust, and Silver, and decided to give them a try.

I purchased the yarn at Tribe, a lovely yarn store in Richmond, London.  Doug and I wandered in there last summer, and I spent at least an hour picking out yarn, and then just as I was checking out, I spied these beautiful skeins of Blue Sky Metalico.  Milli, the very charming owner of Tribe, told me of a lovely shawl she had made some years ago from these same three shades, and I ended up putting away the other yarn and buying three skeins in each colour.  They then sat in a box at home for quite a while before I had the idea to use them to knit another Cool Boots.

The yarn is gorgeous.  It is a sportweight yarn, 50% alpaca and 50% silk.  It is soft and silky, and has lots of bounce.   It is a bit splitty to work with as it is unplied, but so soft on the hands, and it is truly luminescent.  Notice the way the colours change dramatically against the white background of the top photo and the warm beiges of the photo above.  (The fantastic Gold Dust really pops against the white wall, while the Opal takes prominence against the warm bricks and stone.)  Notice also how transparent and airy the yarn looks against the light:

While I was knitting this, I became fairly skeptical about it.  It looked so plain and unexciting compared to my more usual brights, and in particular compared to the original Cool Boots Shawl.  But I must say that my opinion changed dramatically (as did the shawl) once it was blocked.  The texture, post blocking, is so fantastic; its hard to describe but it is bouncy and springy.  It has weight to it, but it also flows and drapes and catches the breeze:

The shawl is knit sideways, with long triangles formed by short rows; it leads to the lovely assymetry of the two sides as above.   (You can see the shaping clearly if you look at the pattern post.)  The only changes that I made to the pattern were to accomodate the sportweight yarn.  I used a US5 needle instead of a US4, and I cast on 348 stitches instead of 380.  It turned out almost the same size – it blocked out to 19″ x 70″.

There is a storm battering the UK today, but yesterday we took these photos in the lovely town of Watlington.  The sun came out and the town made a perfect backdrop for a photo shoot.  It even provided the answer to life, the universe, and everything:

Nevertheless, I was very happy to get back into my coat afterwards, and enjoy a coffee:

While I love the original shawl, I must admit that I do find it a bit itchy on my neck.  It was knit with a very wool-y wool, and while I love the way the wool holds the garter stitch so beautifully, I have found that I am wearing it less often because of the itch factor.  This shawl is cozy and soft with zero itch.  So it not only looks fabulous, but it is very comfortable.  Even this guy thinks it deserves a toast:

I am now cozy inside while the storm rages.  I have been working on a hat this week, and it has turned out too small, but there is something rather fitting about ripping out a project during a storm; don’t you think?  I have a box of homemade truffles and a cup of tea.  Bliss.

Knitting: science not fluff

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In my previous life (not very long ago) I was the manager of a neuroscience centre -CINN, at the University of Reading, UK.  While there, I was very interested in knitting and the brain, and in the therapeutic benefits of knitting.  I connected with Betsan Corkhill, who is a trained physiotherapist and an expert on the therapeutic effects of knitting, and together we tried to thrum up an interest in funding scientific research on the topic.  (If you haven’t done so, you should read the interview I posted with Betsan here.)  While I’ve moved back into an academic post, I continue to be involved in the knitting research at the centre.

I am happy to report that we have now started a research project into knitting and wellness, run by Dr. Etienne Roesch.  Also engaged in the project are Felicity Ford and Lorna Hamilton-Brown.  Felicity (better known as Felix) is the author of the Knitsonic Stranded Colourwork Playbook which encourages knitters to find inspiration in the everyday and translate it into stranded colourwork design. She recently won a Best Practice award from the International Women’s Day for her collaboration with Kate Davies on a commemorative knitted quilt.  Lorna is an artist and film-maker, and an exuberant “knitting evangelist”.  Her Masters Dissertation from the Royal College of Arts is called Myth: Black People Don’t Knit, and she was awarded an MBE by the Queen.  I very much enjoyed meeting with them this week and look forward to our collaboration.

Lorna Hamilton-Brown, Kelly Sloan, and Felicity Ford

Over 6000 knitters have already completed our questionnaire.  You can too!  Here’s how:

Do you like knitting or crocheting, regularly or even not so regularly? Would you like to be part in a study to explore the psychological effects from knitting and crocheting? If so, you can fill in our set of questionnaires at the address below. This should take only 10-15 minutes of your time. You will also be given the opportunity to play an online game and enter a raffle for a £50 Amazon voucher.

https://reading.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/science-not-fluff

It’s a very stormy Sunday here in the UK, but I am happily holed inside with my knitting.  Hibernation is not just for bears!

Ease into the year

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I’ve finished my first knitted project of the year:

(It perhaps helps that I started it in September.)  This a a design by the designer Torhild Trydal, for Isager.  This pattern is not on Ravelry; I purchased it at the yarn store Sommerfuglen in Copenhagen.  The pattern is called Torhild’s Snoning, and I bought both a print copy, and the yarn there.

The pullover is knit with two strands of yarn held together: Isager Strik Aran Tweed in Green and Isager Strik Silk Mohair in 37 Bottle Green.  It knits up really fast on a US10.5/6.5mm needle, at a stitch gauge of 13.5 stitches/4 inches.  It took me four months to knit this because I spent most of that time either not knitting at all, or knitting something else.  If you were monogamous, you could easily finish this in under a month.

This was a gift for my daughter Emma, who is modelling here. Emma is very slim and willowy, and the pattern is “One size fits all” with a 54 inch circumference.  This means that there is LOTS of positive ease.  In fact, on Emma, it has 22 inches of positive ease:

While this massive amount of ease looks cute on someone like Emma, and is clearly in style, I think it could have been made with a wee bit less.  You wouldn’t fit this under a coat.  You can really see the extra volume from the back:

Emma, I might point out, likes the drape of this pullover.  Blocking made a really big difference to the feel and the resulting fabric is very warm, very soft, and with lots of movement – it doesn’t have a heavy feel to it.  That said, both Emma and I agree that if I were to make it again, I would probably aim for about 6-8 inches less ease.  (By the way, if you are not as slim and willowy as Emma, and want to make this for yourself, you might want to keep it as written.  It looks good on me as is – with 12 inches of ease – but it is way too warm for me to wear.)

I like the way Emma has styled it.  It looks cute with these flowered trousers and red boots.  It is a very rustic looking pullover, so I had imagined it with jeans or leggings, but as usual, Emma manages to mix up styles in an engaging way.

A special thank you to Ina, who helped me to translate from the Danish.  I made a few changes, mostly to the neckline.  I changed the way that I made the decreases along the neck edges, and also added 30 stitches to the neckline, which I then knit with a smaller needle.  I really like the way this turned out.

I almost didn’t post today.  This weekend, the first after the UK has left the EU, has left me terribly sad and angry.   But then I realised that I could show you a beautiful project, designed by an EU designer, knit with wool from an EU company, bought in an EU yarn store, and modelled by my lovely multi-national daughter, who was raised in the EU.

Best wishes to all my readers, wherever you live, with hopes that knitting has no borders.