Transformation
Hello everyone!
I hope you’ve had a super weekend!
Knitting by itself is a delightful pastime, piling up rows of knit and purl stitches, it is rhythmic and therapeutic, and a total delight.
Once I got the hang of knitting and purling, I wanted to stretch my wings a little more.
I saw on Ravelry all these lace shawls. My mouth watered and I figured, I can do that. I assembled yarn and needles, and a pattern. I got the hang of yarnovers, and learned left and right slanted decreases.
I followed some patterns, the ones I picked were either too hard, or not particularly well written.
Classes I went to, it was hard to talk, listen and make lace.
Eventually it all started to come together, it took a couple of years.
Here you can see my daughter’s shawl.
It’s a good example of transformation.
Once it’s all knitted up it looks, well crumpled.
The transformation comes from the blocking.
The knitting is the easy bit, effortless, like when your life is going smoothly. Then the lace part is like falling in love, there are points when you are full of rage, there are points when everything goes well, and you can’t believe your luck. There is usually heartbreak and you have to rip back. Sometimes you don’t have a lifeline, and it is impossibly scary.
You have to say goodbye to the shawl and cast it off the needles.
It sits, neglected and alone in the knitting basket.
When you get round to it, it’s day finally comes.
You take the knitted thing and drown it, even when it’s perfumed waters, the shawl has to drown. Once it has relaxed in the water, it looks like a mermaid, sleeping.
Then you gently rinse it and release it from the water. It has to be squeezed then wrapped into a thick dry towel like a baby.
Once the blocking mats are ready you pin out the shawl. It is wet but happy to emerge from its slumber.
Patience is required, nothing gets blocked quickly. Pulling it into shape hurts. But it is worth it.
Lace knitting is a metaphor for life.
This is what being transformed is about. From a lumpy ball of yarn. Into a butterfly.
Before and After!
Hello all!
It is sunny and gorgeous here today, and I’ve been for a walk over the park and had a nice lunch.
My shawl blocked beautifully and the thick crispy yarn has softened right out and is nice to wear. I am wearing it now to potter about in and don’t care if it looks a bit odd with my tracksuit bottoms and t shirt. I am warm and happy!
In our garden we are seeing a very much wider range of birds, earlier this week I had a chiff chaff in the front garden, our robins and blue tits visit daily and today we had a nightingale sitting in our greengage tree! It is the greatest joy to think that our home is now a happy place to visit for so many feathered friends.
I have some pictures to share with you:
I played spot the cat earlier because it has decided today that it will sleep in a new place:
Also here are before and after pictures of my shawl:
I’m Not Fragile
Hello everyone!
It’s been quite an exciting week, and I’m sure I’d have enjoyed it more if this evil cold would pack off. I started an initiative at work for all the colleagues with various impairments and disabilities to come together to meet and form communities to support each other.
Yesterday was the first focus group, on mental health issues. I was really nervous, but it went well, phew! The meeting was lively, jolly, heartfelt and passionate. We ended up with an exciting and really worthwhile agenda to lobby for, and after the meeting My friend David set us up a forum on line, so now we can meet” virtually” all the time.
This blog saved me when my depression was at its worst because I felt so isolated. I didn’t feel like I had anyone to turn to, and needed to speak out what was going on in my head, and the blog was a virtual friend, and over time it has grown and now I have made real friends! Hey Julie, I’m looking forward to seeing you next week!
I am hoping these focus groups will stop colleagues from feeling alone and desperate as I did during my worst moments. Next week we have focus groups for colleagues with hearing and visual impairments, the week after physical and medical issues, and learning and social impairments. So there will be five in total. I’m also setting up an online chat room for folk who use assistive tech, like Jaws and Zoomtext and other software, so if a new colleague joins, they can come to the channel and get hints and tips from long term users.
Also, of uplifting note, this week my new shelving arrived. I have two little pine bookcases, they are for yarn, and I have a wrought iron bakers rack, which came this morning. I have spent all day going up and down stairs carrying books and yarn. It isn’t finished just yet, but tomorrow I will get it straight.
I am very excited also as Sunday is a knitting class at Loop with my dear friend Juju Vail. We have to take yarn and needles with us, and I confess it is stressing me out a bit trying to decide what to take….
By the time this afternoon came, I needed to get out of the house as it was driving me mad being stuck indoors. I bought some trousers and a jacket as I am being taken out for dinner next week and want to look smart, and I confess I bought some more yarn as well. Quite a bit actually. In justification, it is for Christmas presents, you can’t expect other people to like the same colours you do can you?
My plan is to turn out a bunch of mittens, slippers and hot water bottle cosies. I also found some lovely tweedy yarn in a sandy taupe shade, I am going to have me a a slouchy beanie out of that!
This morning I got up early to do the crochet castoff on Katy’s shawl. Here is the shawl, it is unblocked, but you deserve a good tah- daah!
In the focus group, we were saying how depression makes you weaker and less able to cope with difficult scenarios.
My cat is sitting on the packaging for my bakers rack here, I’m calling this photo “I’m Not Fragile” as Woozle is as tough and resilient as a creature can be!.
List of Projects
Hello again!
I have been up to my ears in yarn all afternoon.
For several hours I have sorted, bagged, tidied, photographed and listed the yarn contents of my bookcase and cupboard and under the bed upstairs. My daughter says I need an intervention. I told her, this is my own intervention!
Here is the list of stuffs I produced:
I don’t expect you to read my scrawl, but that’s a list of about 47 projects worth of yarn, and that’s not counting the yarn and WIP’s downstairs. I have complete amnesia about the yarn in the loft so I’ll skip over that quickly….
So in terms of the projects that are downstairs, I have the blue scarf of squares which is nearly done, a couple of dishcloths, a tea cosy, and a couple of cardigans. Oh, and the Khaleesi shawl, the French ladies bag, the ribbon lace scarf and some socks.
I haven’t looked in the craft cupboard, so I’ll look there tomorrow. Also I bought red yarn yesterday for my secret project.
Here you can see Woozle helping as usual.
Deep Stash!
Hello everyone!
I hope you’re having a jolly day and enjoying the weekend! I am pleased to report that my deep depression of recent months has completely gone, following the miserable weekend two weeks ago. I don’t know if it was a kind of cathartic experience, the weather improving, my holiday approaching, or whether it was knowing my dear friend Ali would always stand by me, her wise counsel or a combination of all these things.
I know that my mood is helped by becoming more organised, and I demonstrated my marble jar yesterday. I am adding another item to my marble list – for delegation, as I feel I should pat myself on the back for getting help with these jobs when I can.
Jon is at work today, and Amber and I are rattling about in the house together. Dear Woozle is looking better by the day, her abscess has healed, all the horrid scabs have fallen away and her skin is pink underneath and very healthy looking. It is a shame her little head is shaved, she looks like Sinead O Connor.
Anyhow, on the subject of organisation, today I have girded my loins and following a fabulous sausage sandwich brunch I have dived into the yarn boxes on top of my bookcase.
Here is my bookcase, it is rammed with knitting books.
The oldest one is Kaffe Fassett, “Glorious Knitting” which is inscribed inside as it was a prize for classics when I was at school. I saw Kaffe speak, when I was about 20 years old, he has been my muse for my entire adult life. I would love one of his white paintings, he loves still lifes, the same as me, and his handling of colour and texture is marvellous. If you click here you can see some of his work.
My yarn boxes are all empty, and my yarn is all over the bed and I am sorting it out. As usual, I am intrigued with the bag of odd bits of yarn, the leftovers, the weird colours and mismatched textures. Why do I bother being serious and buying 600g of decent hand dyed yarn to make a project? I should just head to a charity shop and buy whatever old oddments of acrylic they have left and get all inspired and fizzy like I am now.
Ridiculous!
Anyhow, I am in the middle of sorting it all now, so I will run back upstairs and finish. I have found my little bag of knitting in beads that I’d lost, also, my other set of sock needles. And a completed tapestry of some flamenco dancers. I am the naffest person who ever lived.
Also I am quite ashamed at how much wool I have accrued. I was seriously planning to buy some more yarn this weekend. Aargh!
I will report back to you when I am done.
The Joy Of Stash!
Hello all!
Tonight I am going home to an almost Amish simplicity. My house is decluttered, Jon has taken his vast store of tools to the warehouse where he now works and my cat could run about under my bed freely if it could be bothered to wake up as there is clear space.
My stash is not clutter, however. It is to my mind a sensible investment in necessary equipment to ensure my artistic whims can be adequately catered to.
Last night I cast off the huge seed stitch wrap I have been working on over recent months. It is huge however the weather has finally turned mild and I doubt it will be worn with my winter coat this season.
This is no problem, and I’m glad I made it because making it has taught me some lessons:
- seed stitch is merely daunting and not actually painful
- colour blocks look great and I’ll do more of these in future
- colours do not need to be organised according to dark/light but can move in other ways and work well
- simple designs are gentle on the mind and give a sense of peace and lightness
- the Purl Bee is a genius, and her patterns are extremely cunning and devilishly tempting. I mean, have you seen today’s Tunisian Washcloths? Stunning! What else did I have planned for tonight? Total distraction!
What do you think of the Purl Soho designs? Or am I the only one whose knitting plans get derailed after a weekend email?
Anyhow, I think I owe you a daytime snap of the wrap, so here you are.
Colour Theory With Madeline Tosh
Yesterday was terrific.
I had a leisurely long bath and get ready, I wore my new navy cardi and felt so happy to be going out on a jaunt to my favourite shop, Loop, even though it was bitterly freezing cold and ghastly outside.
My journey went perfectly, I knit two rows of my Blue Thai Silk Shawl, there are so many teensy stitches I can no longer knit this during my commute.
As it was too cold to browse much I headed to the Elk in the Woods, a gorgeous gastropub just a few doors down from Loop. I had the best Full English of my life. Seriously. I don’t even like baked beans and now I am definitely planning on asking for a plateful next time…
Feeling very trendy, and full up, I headed for my class on colour theory at Loop. The teacher was Madeline Tosh, aka Amy. I went to art school and Amy gave the best colour theory class I have heard.
I will not go into the details, however we all came away with a full understanding of the theory, how to put it into practice in our textile arts, and best of all, a really good idea of what colours we individually should wear and be knitting with.
I had been really wrestling with this as I was looking to pick a colour for a new sweater recently, and although I am usually always very drawn to bright colours I knew something in this style would look ghastly on me in a bright hue. My hairdresser wears cream and pale grey and looks lovely, yet I fear cream and grey yarn for garments.
Amy helped me understand my own colouring, and what works for me. What was really nice was how everyone in the class (what a super group of clever and creative ladies!) helped everyone else as we went along in this part, and I now have a selection of very distinctive and elegant shades to work with, and my confidence in colour is now completely restored.
A big thank you is due to Susan, who runs Loop, and also to Amy who transformed my thinking.
Shilasdair Saturday
Hello everyone!
I hope you’re all having a jolly weekend thus far!
My news is as follows:
- The blue thai silk shawl is coming on apace. For anyone making the seed stitch wrap, have something tedious you want to finish to hand that is sticking stitch. You’ll thoroughly enjoy it as a change from the K1P1 tedium.
- My amazing seed stitch wrap is exciting – I am about to start colour 5 (cream) today – (yippee!)
- My friend Alison might be coming to visit next week, she has a houseboat and chickens
- I am examining my collection of naturally hand dyed Shilasdair yarns from the aisle of Skye and trying to decide what to make from them
- This week’s two balls of Kochoran are slowly forming into the inspiration for a gorgeous fuzzy spring jacket in teddy bear beige with Noro Stripes – mmmm!
Having a massive stash of yarn to play with just makes the brain thrill at the creative possibilities.
Any suggestions as to the Shilasdair below, please comment and help me along!
Friday, And Relax!
Hello all!
This week all week has been uphill. Work has been even more random than normal, and there has been some shirking, slippery shoulders and all the usual things you expect in a large organisation.
Having said that, I was in bliss all week after Unravel and my day with Michele. And all my friends were about, I had good chats and lunches and coffees!
My mouth has been hurting this week so I visited the dentist, and he gave me some meds that he warned me might upset my stomach. They made me sick. Just what I needed.
My new Ravelry friend, Ozisim, joined us at Knitting Club on Wednesday, and we all thought she was amazing! I was making something in entrelac and she described the clever way she does the edges on these and we all went “Wooo! that’s really clever!”. It’s a bit difficult to sit in a round at Costa so it can be hard to hear what anyone is saying as the group is so large and Costa is so noisy..
However, I have had the day off today, I got to lie in until 9.30, I had some breakfast and knit for a while, then went back to bed for a read and a nap. Now I’m up, and in my nightie, my faithful Furball is on her pile of cushions next to me and she has been solidly asleep all day long, as far as I can tell.
I have had some excitement, I have been looking at yarn from the Far East again, I have found a possible supplier for the yarn for my Lemongrass jumper, the yarn is in shades of cream and white, I am quite captivated.
Jon has been spoiling me, he just handed me a bowl of cut up strawberries.
Also, my yarn for the seed stitch wrap has started to arrive, my version will be in Debbie Bliss Andes, as I am not prepared to spend $400 on my eleventieth winter scarf.
The other 8 skeins should hopefully arrive tomorrow. Squeal!
Shrove Tuesday and Mardi Gras!
Hello all!
It is Shrove Tuesday today, or Mardi Gras if you’re in the US.
In Britain, it is customary to give something up today as a sign of penitence, after gorging on pancakes with lemon juice (usually from a squirty plastic lemon) made crunchy and sticky with white sugar.
We have had our pancakes, they were very nice indeed! I particularly enjoy Shrove Tuesday pancakes as they remind me so much of the time I spent with my Grandparents, my Nannie at the cooker, making pancakes for me when I was little.
The nice thing for me is I live in my Grandparents house now with my family, and although both my beloved Grandparents are no longer here, I can stand in the kitchen using my Nannies Pyrex jug and remember her. I feel warm all through with their love which is still very much a part of me.
In terms of giving things up, and penitence, I am planning on having a massive de clutter. I gave up cigarettes in August last year, and still wrestle every day with living without them. I know giving up clutter is not the same as doing without something I like it will have to do. I am already on a diet. And I still miss my Grandparents so enough about giving up already.
My friend Pauline wrote on her blog about Donegal tweed yarn, so I thought I’d give it a shot. Pauline’s blog goes into more detail. The yarn was ordered this weekend and arrived this morning. Amazing service. 500 g of pure wool aran yarn for less than £30. Bargain! And it comes in 30 colours.
The yarn I have chosen is black/grey tweed. It is extremely masculine looking and I thought it might make a nice cardigan for work or for with jeans. The yarn itself is very nice to use and knits up quickly. I am using my favourite vintage boye needles.
My cat is pleased I taught myself a different way to purl, as in previous years, when I made a purl stitch my needle would swing round and poke her awake occasionally, which made me feel guilty. Not that anything would stop her sitting on me.
Skyscrapers and String 