Monthly Archives: November 2021

Progress report: the good and the bad

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I was so lucky to have had a lovely few days at the Country House Knitting Retreat, where I knit for much of the time (as well as socialising and meeting some great new people). I worked mostly on the Caravay sweater (Ravelry link) which I am knitting for Emma. This beautiful sweater, designed by Linda Marveng, is a really big piece of knitting. It is A LOT of knitting – an oversized pullover knitted with fingering weight yarn in a dense overall cabled stitch pattern. I am sure that there are fast knitters who could power through this, but for me it is a major piece of knitting and a big commitment.

I have finished knitting the back and about 2/3 of the front. Below, you can see me holding up the back piece so that you can get an idea of size. Note that this is unblocked and it will gain a bit in both length and width once I’ve blocked it. If you recall that Emma is an XS, you can see how much ease is built into this pullover.

I absolutely adore the texture that this stitch pattern creates, and the beautiful, rich, red of the yarn. (The yarn is Tinde Pelsull, by Hillesvåg Ullvarefabrikk, in Burgundy.) It’s hard to capture but this photo does a pretty good job:

I’m fairly certain this sweater is going to be a winner and look fantastic on Emma. We are going out there for Christmas, so I am knitting as fast as I can. I would love to have the front and back and two sleeves knitted and blocked before we go, but that seems fairly unlikely at the moment. The more important goal is to have the sweater finished before the trip ends and I fly back home.

That’s the good part of the progress report, which means there is some bad to report as well. You may recall this post a few weeks back about a pattern that was giving me troubles. I made a lot of adjustments, as discussed in that post, and took this with me to the knitting retreat to work on in the evenings, as the Caravay is hard to see at night, and takes some concentration. The result is very pretty in this beautiful dusky pink wool:

However, it’s really huge. And it seems to be getting bigger with every round.

I talked it over with Doug, trying to decide whether to rip it and start over with a smaller size needle, or whether to rip partially back, keeping the ribbing and then decreasing a bunch of stitches. Doug, in his wisdom said “You were having lots of issues already with this pattern. Who’s to say that you won’t keep encountering more problems, even if you get this particular one sorted out. Maybe you should find another pattern.” Bingo. Problem solved. It’s very pretty yarn and it deserves a pattern that I’m happy with. Maybe I will need to write my own.

This weekend there has been little knitting. I’ve been involved in that awful, un-speakable act: house cleaning! Egads! The horror! (I did manage to go see Dune, however; I loved it!) Best wishes, everyone. Stay safe.

Country House Retreat

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I had a fantastic time at the Country House Retreat last week. It is the first time in over ten years that I have been on a knitting retreat, and it exceeded all of my expectations. First and foremost, it was an absolutely lovely bunch of knitters, and we had a blast:

photo from Events Unwound

The retreat is in the Lake District in England and the House and environs were really beautiful. The photo above is taken in front of the house where we stayed, Melmerby Hall. It is a gorgeous place, and has been very lovingly restored.

The leaves were all in the last throes of autumn; this is the view from my bedroom window:

It is a very spacious, comfortable place to knit, and to hang out. I like the photo below, which shows the cosy breakfast room. Note that everyone is knitting, except for me. I am eating. And talking.

photo from Events Unwound

We spent the time knitting, eating, laughing, drinking champagne, walking through the countryside, taking classes, and knitting some more. We started the retreat with a birthday party to celebrate all of the birthdays which had gone un-celebrated during lockdowns. There were a number of big birthdays – 40, 50, 60 and 70 were all represented. We also had an unexpected big event to celebrate: Max and Vincent got engaged while we were there! Much more champagne drinking and fun ensued.

The countryside is dotted with sheep; I seem to have only taken horse photos.

I went for a long walk, during which I got to demonstrate incontrovertibly that my coat was not waterproof. This photo was taken before the downpour:

Oh, and did I mention that there were goodie bags? Here is some of the stuff I got:

The two yarns that are caked are from The Fibre Company, a light grey skein of Cumbria and a darker grey skein of Cirro. The beautiful bag on the bottom was hand-made by fellow retreater Reet, and contained the sock yarn bundle on the right and lots of goodies. I also bought some lovely things in the mini-marketplace.

The retreat was run by Carmen and Mette (shown in the photo on top on either side with their dogs); the company Events Unwound is associated with Carmen’s yarn shop, A Yarn Story, in Bath. Get on her mailing list if you want to be in the loop about future events. This particular retreat had its fair share of knitting designers – Aleks Byrd, Amanda Jones, Maxim Cyr and Vincent Deslandes were all there – so we got to see what they were working on next. (Aleks is wearing her fabulous Seli sweater in the top photo! I am really wanting to make this one.)

I did a lot of knitting while I was there, mostly chugging along on the Caravay sweater for Emma. I’ll show you some progress photos next week.

Two trips in a week

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It seems like an embarrassment of riches. And it feels pretty weird too. After two years of mostly staying put, I have two trips to make this week, and it is throwing me into a tizzy. The first is a business trip to Helsinki. I will fly in on Thursday and return on the last flight on Friday evening after teaching a full-day workshop. Then, early on Sunday morning, I will hop on a train and head north to the Lake District for……a knitting retreat! The retreat is one that was originally scheduled for last year and was postponed for obvious reasons. It is a small group – 14 of us, none of whom I know. I am really excited about it.

Even though I am so out of practice, packing for a business trip is usually pretty easy; all of the important stuff is teaching related: laptop, adaptors, cables, chargers, mouse, reading glasses, projector cables, plus of course having all of my slides in order. In addition, there is also a bunch of pandemic-related stuff: masks, covid tests before and after for both trips, and lots of forms to fill out at every point along the way, for customs, for the airlines, for insurance, for the university, and for the retreat.

I can handle all of that stuff. But the important question is: what do I take to the knitting retreat? The last one I went to was before I started this blog. I will have one very small suitcase, and will have to change trains twice so will need to keep the weight down. I need to have enough knitting projects for 4 days. I will need things I can knit while drinking wine and chatting. We will be having a workshop and a retreat project, so I have a list of required supplies to take up with me. I will want to be comfortable and relaxed on a cold, rainy week in the Lake District. I will need hiking shoes. And, of course, I will want to wear a few hand-knitted items that other knitters would appreciate. Argh! This is much harder than packing for business!