Knit Nation, London, July 2010

Knit Nation. I wish every nation was full of knitters, then we would have world peace, solutions to all problems and lots more smiling happy people in the world. There would also be a lot more sheep but then that's a small price to pay. I'm just back from Knit Nation in London and I had the most fabulous two days and I'm now sure that knitters are the nicest people.

I got a plane early on Friday morning to Gatwick and got some trains and ended up arriving at Imperial College, the Knit nation venue just in time for the opening of the marketplace at 11.00. Most of the knitters in the queue made a beeline for the Wollmeise stand. I decided to join them for a look. I heard an Irish accent and recognised Jo from Celtic Memory Yarns. I said hello and we chatted while she was deciding what colours to buy I hope you got some you loved Jo! I bought two skeins just in case they all sold out but I needn't have worried as there was loads. Wollmeise is a phenomenon, the web shop sells out like lightening every time there is an update. Having seen all the colours all at once I will say that some of the hype is definitely justified. The colours are bright, clear and well separated. Having tried some dyeing myself I can appreciate that it's amazingly well done. I got two skeins. One is a beautiful autumnal skein called Paul which may grow up to be a clapotis. The other was a mostly purple yarn called grapes for sheri. I have no plans for it yet but I seem to be on a shawl roll recently so it may end up being another one. 

I then went to the p/hop. P/hop stands for pennies per hour of pleasure and is raising money for the wonderful Medecins Sans Frontieres. Various designers have donated patterns and you donate money based on the hours of pleasure you get from the pattern. At the stand I met Clare who I have known online for some time, she helps out p/hop in the UK. I love meeting people that I know from the web though it can be funny as you try to explain who you are. Maybe there will be new etiquette books explaining how to deal with these situations.  Clare very kindly offered that I could stay with her Friday night so thanks a million for that Clare. At her place I had the privilege of meeting the black cat, if you follow Clare's blog or twitter you will have heard of the black cat that visits her. He's a funny cat who came over and immediately demanded attention from me.

At lunch I met Sinead who had been at a sock knitting class with the famous Cookie A for the morning. We did some yarn shopping and got some food. Then it was off to meet yet another generous and fabulous knitter, L. On Ravelry I had complained that I didn't know I needed a wheel for my class and L offered to lend me hers as she was taking a class that morning and didn't need the wheel for the afternoon. So a big thanks to L if you're reading this. I could have done the class with no wheel but it was much better to have one.

The class teacher was Judith Mackenzie McCuin and she is a spinning genius. I learned more about spinning in the three hours of this class than I have in the last few months of spinning combined. Judith explained all about how spinning wheels work and all the tricks that you can do to make them work at their peak. She then explained how to make the spinning wheel do the work for you. Most spinners produce a default yarn meaning that they draft and treadle at a certain rate which then produces a certain weight yarn. I definitely do this and recently I've been trying to produce different yarn and was advised that I would have to treadle faster and draft finer to produce a laceweight yarn and I wasn't very successful at it. Judith says that you can't change your default yarn and when you get to that stage that it's a good time to learn what she teaches so it seems I took this class at the right moment.

She got us to use the wheel to change the yarn we produced so by changing settings on the ratios and brake band we were able to get different weights of yarn as you can see in the picture. I didn't change how fast I treadled or how fast I drafted to produce all these different yarns I just changed the wheel set up. Well it was like a light bulb went off in my head. It was like I didn't really know how to spin at all before this class. I now have a much better understanding of how my wheel works and how to use it. It was a fantastic class and well worth going to London to take it. Judith is a legend. 

After all that excitement it was time for dinner and pints with Sinead and Viola. We had great fun in the pub and there was even Fuller's London Pride on cask for me. After that I met up with Clare and some knitters I know from twitter so it was great to met them in person.

Now to shw you all the rest of my shopping loot. The marketplace was really well set up just like the whole event. It all ran so well and so smoothly. Well done to all the organizers and volunteers. I got my two skeins of Wollmeise. I got a skein of green laceweight from Krafty Koala. From Juno Fiber Arts I got some dyed Wensleydale and Teeswater fiber, I haven't tried either before. From Baby Long Legs I got some lovely smoky blue BFL fiber. From John Arbon I got some undyed yarn so I can play around with some dyeing. I also got an issue of Inside Crochet which you can't get in Ireland for some reason and a Knit Nation bag. The Loop bag was free. I also met the lovely Ysolda Teague and tried on some of her designs. I got a snap with her in her fun photo both too. 

On Saturday I dropped back into Knit Nation for a bit before I went to meet A from Impy Malting. I made a detour to the Hummingbird bakery for a delicious cupcake and some coffee. Impy and I had a great chat over some tasty beers at the Market Porter. It's great to go out with someone local like Impy, I'd never have found these great beer pubs on my own. I really liked the Harvey’s Bitter being in the mood for light hoppy beers at the moment. I don't know why but dark complex beers just aren't my thing at the moment, maybe it's the weather. The pub was busy but we got a seat and talked life, beer and knitting. Us knitting, brewing, beer blogging girls have to stick together you know.

We then headed to The Rake which is the beer pub you always hear about on UK beer blogs. They have a cool selection of beers on cask and many in bottles. I looked at their bottled selection and was surprised at how many of them are available in pubs in Dublin like The Bull and Castle, The Porterhouse and L. Mulligan Grocer and the quality off licenses. I always think that in the UK you can get lots more beer than here, it just shows how much the selection in Dublin has improved in recent times. For US and Belgian beer we're actually pretty well served. Of course we don't get as many English ales or cask beers which is a pity. Sadly I couldn't stay long and being sensible left for my train back to the airport in plenty time. Thanks Impy and hopefully I can return the favour with beer tour of Dublin soon. All in all it was the most fabulous two days. Knit Nation? Definitely. 

More photos of the trip are here. I apologize for the quality of some of them. Usually this is where I say I took them on my phone not my camera but this time the reverse is true. My camera isn't focusing properly and seems to be crap with knitting things, maybe it's the colours. The ones I took when I got home with the phone are much better. 

The Yarn Room, Ashford, Wicklow

A little while ago we went on a camping trip to Wicklow. On the Saturday I decided to call in to The Yarn Room which is located in Ashford. The Yarn Room began life selling on the web and also as a stall in the market in Dun Laoghaire at weekends. That's where I first met the lovely Stephanie who runs the shop.  She has since gone on to make The Yarn Room a reality. It's a perfect little yarn shop and a yarny oasis.

As luck would have it I dropped in on a day when Stephanie was having a felting and spinning day. I learned how to felt a flower. I can't remember the ladies name but thanks to her for showing me how. I also spun some lovely colourful Icelandic fleece on an Ashford Traveler wheel. It's a lovely smooth wheel and I had a lot of fun spinning and then stopping for a cup of tea and some biscuits. I also loved the look of the plotulopi yarn which is unspun roving that can be spun or stranded together for colour work. As well as the fibre the shop is also filled with fabulous yarns. There's also a whole table of pattern books where one could lose a lot of time.

I did a bit of shopping too. I got a tiny 0.75mm crochet hook, a pack of merino fibre and a gauge for measuring the weight of spun yarn. I can totally recommend a visit to The Yarn Room. Thanks Stephanie!    

Last weekend I visited more yarn shops so I'll tell you about those soon. Work continues on my Annis shawl. It's going really really really slowly. I cast on but had to rip back and cast on again as the cast on edge wasn't looking very nice. The new cast on looks much better. It was going along quite nicely but progress is slow as I'm a slow knitter and there's 363 stitches in a row. Notice the 'it was' in the last sentence. Progress has now slowed to almost non existent. I'm knitting away but well nothing much is happening. I think I've spent the last few days on a purl row. The reason is the nupps, or little balls of screaming annoyance as I like to call them. They are fine to do on the right side but then when it comes to purling seven stitches together it's horrid. It takes forever, I'm even using the aforementioned tiny crochet hook to help. I think I will leave them out on the next row (row 11) and then do them on row 13. I know it's not correct but it may help me to finish the project with my sanity intact. I keep telling myself I only have eight rows to go until I reach the stocking stitch section. Watch this space.

Dyeing to tell you

For the last day of my trip to Scotland I had something special planned. I decided my holiday wouldn't be complete without a crafty day. So I searched the net and found the rather wonderful Lilith of Old Maiden Aunt Yarns. She is an indie dyer working in West Kilbride in Scotland and even better she does a dye workshop day. Her yarn looked amazing so I booked myself in for the day before we left for home.



The dye workshop was fantastic, it was like being a kid who had just been set loose in a room full of paint and told they could do what they liked. Lilith is a great teacher, she let me play around but she was also there to answer all of my stupid questions.

First I dyed some sample skeins and I got to try out different dye techniques, different colours and different fibers. They all change the result you get in the end. I also dyed some roving as I was keen to learn how to do that since I hope to dye some of my alpaca fleece.

After a quick lunch from the tasty bakery next door I decided on the yarn I wanted to dye for my main project. I picked out a lovely soft merino/cashmere/nylon blend and dyed two skeins of sock weight yarn. I'm hoping to make a clapotis shawl from it. I decided to dye it a murky brown colour and then over dye this with a lime green colour. The colour reminded me of brackish scummy water with bright green algae growing in it, in a good way though...

I also dyed about 100g of merino and bamboo blend top. This was a dark purple colour. The bamboo doesn't take up dye as it's a plant fiber (see all the things I know now after the course) so it gives these great white streaks running through the top.



In this picture you can see my dyed yarn on the top right. It's a lovely colour kinda like tree bark with lichen growing on it. Below it are the sample skeins. The bottom left is the roving which I can't wait to spin. Also on the bottom left is a skein of Old Maiden Aunt silk alpaca yarn in the colour way bracken. I couldn't leave without buying some! It was a really fun day, I learned loads and got to take home some lovely new yarn. Thanks a million Lilith.

In the top right hand corner of the photo above are some other crafty purchases from Scotland. I got some handmade soap with bog myrtle in it. I also bought a lovely nuno felt scarf made on the Island of Eigg. I picked up a lovely dress pattern for 50p in a charity shop. I try to buy crafts when I'm away, I can't afford to buy much but it's good to show some support for nice handmade things. Handmade things remind you more of a place especially if you get to meet the artist.

Rest of the photos are here.

Knitting and Stitching Show, RDS, Dublin, October 2008

On friday last I headed to my first knitting and stitching show. It's organized and run by Twisted Thread. I heard from people that last years show wasn't great, there wasn't enough knitting and there were many irrelevant stands. I don't know about that but this year there was loads to see and I spent the entire day in a wooly whirlwind.

First off I went for some coffee to give me a caffeine boost. Then I did a quick tour around all the stands. There were loads of them and I think even after the day there were some I didn't see. The thing I really wanted to see was the Crochet Coral Reef so up I went to the balcony. I have seen photos of the reef but they don't do it justice. I got talking to the lovely girls who were looking after the reef. I met Stitch Lily in the flesh. We had a good chat while I finished crocheting my bit of coral for the reef. She's a lady with loads of great ideas.





That was enough relaxing the shopping had to begin in earnest! First off I found the This Is Knit stand which looked as good as the shop. In the bargain bin I found a lovely skein of
Araucania cotton ulmo. This will be turned into something for my Mum who is allergic to wool. She says even cashmere or alpaca irritates her. I also wanted something really special to make her a cowl for christmas. I found Di Gilpin's stand and while looking at her beautiful designs I discovered she also had yarn for sale. I fell in love with the hand spun, hand dyed silk. It's so shimmery and the colours are iridescent. The photo doesn't really do it justice. I think this will do nicely made into a lacy cowl for my Mum, she deserves it.



For myself I got some alpaca in a lovely grey which I think may become more handwarmers or gloves. You can never have enough gloves. I also got some lovely kilcarra tweed to make into a hat for the husband. I love kilcarra, the colours are lovely and all go together really well. I got the brown in This Is Knit and the orange from the lovely Stephanie of The Yarn Room. I got talking to her at her lovely stand. This was her shops first year at the Knitting and Stitching show. I wish her the best of luck and hope she'll be there for many future shows.

She had some lovely roving so when I decide I want to spin a bit more I know where I'll be heading.

At the show there were many artists and exhibitions of work. Most artists didn't want photos taken so I can't show you any of their work. Also since my camera serves as my memory aid I can't even remember the names of many of them which is a pity. I'm not sure not allowing photos is a good thing as maybe some online promotion would help artists. I suppose my photos wouldn't capture the essence of the work but a link to their site might help.

There was lots of very inspiring and different work. I was very taken with Anita Bruce and her wire knitted plankton. I have a big thing for emergence and why things take one form and not another. So I was very interested to see this. The wire creatures are very delicate and beautiful.

Another fun exhibition was Searching for Pearls. The artist (whose name I can't remember) had what looked like a button shop set up with countless jars of buttons. You could rearrange the buttons in the jars and then lock the jar so it couldn't be rearranged again with a star sticker. I met someone from my Stitch and Bitch group while rearranging jars of buttons so I went for lunch with her.

After all those buttons I felt the need to buy some. I found a lovely stall where one could fill a bag with buttons for four euro. I crammed two bags with as many buttons as would squish in. Don't all the colours look nice?



I stocked up on beading supplies at the show as well. I'm enjoying the Beads and Bling course and I have lots of things I'd like to make at home so I needed some tools. I got a good deal from the Totally Beads stand. I was especially pleased with the pliers set. I got some tubes of beads and wire. I may make some wirework pieces with them or else use wire crochet to make the pieces. I'll see which looks nicer.





Upstairs in the RDS were the stands of the guilds. I loved the Feltmakers Ireland stand with the red themed pieces. The Irish Guild of Spinners and Weavers were there too. I loved the spinning class I took so who knows maybe next year I'll do another more serious course. There was also the Braiding Society from whom I bought a braiding kit.



Now I better stop rabbiting on before this becomes the longest post ever. The rest of my photos of the day can be seen here. Needless to say it was a great day out. Plenty to see and buy. Recommended.

Belliveau Cove Hat

It's been a busy week and a crafty one too. As well as making some more mini hats I was busy making a hat for a friends birthday. It's a pattern from Crochet Me called Belliveau Cove. It's a shell stitch hat with a little brim. I made it using Kilcarra aran tweed in green and Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Worsted in purple. It's a very easy and quick pattern which works up into a really nice hat. I also made a mini version of this hat in cotton for my new baby cousin. It's terribly cute, hopefully I'll get a photo of her it in at some stage. I forgot my camera so didn't get any photos of it as I handed it over when I finished it.





Before my jewelery making class on wednesday I called into the new branch of This Is Knit in the Powerscourt Centre in Dublin's city centre. Damn forgetting my camera! It's a lovely little shop with lots of yummy yarn in many different colours. It's a great location as well, there's a lot of posh shops in the centre so maybe this will help convince people that knitting isn't a chore and only for poor people. These days it's trendy and about designing things you want. I sometimes get odd reactions from people when I say I knit, they seem very surprised. As if a young person couldn't possibly knit.
Anyway I bought some lovely yarn in This Is Knit, some Kilcarra aran tweed to make a hat for the husband. And some Lorna's Laces Lion and Lamb to make a cowl to go with the mittens and hat I'm knitting. I really like the look of this cowl. I have an awful weakness for yarns with silk in them, they are so soft and the silk gives the yarn a lovely sheen.

I did some sewing this week. My Mum has a sewing machine which she is going to sell to me when she gets a new more powerful one. So until that happens I use it when I visit her at home. At the moment I'm learning to make curtains. We're decorating our bedroom and the curtains and bed runner will be made by me. Curtains aren't actually that hard to make, you just need to be able to sew straight which I can do most of the time. I find when I get to the end of the material I start to go a bit wonky. I'll put some pictures up when the curtains are finished.

Vibes and Scribes, Cork

Vibes and Scribes, Cork

I stumbled across this great craft shop while at the Franciscan Well beer festival in Cork. My friend noticed the beads in the window and we went in. Despite the best efforts of our other halves to extract us we stayed for ages. It's a general craft shop that stocks beads, yarn, painting supplies, books, felt, paper craft stuff and lots more. The yarn selection is small but very good. They do artesano, kilcarra and some crochet cotton. The artesano is yummy and I got two balls of 4ply alpaca which will be turned into gloves or socks. The hummingbird is gorgeous but I didn't splash out. They kilcarra was in loads of lovely colours. They had a nice selection of books too. I also got some brittany double pointed needles which are great. There was a great range of crochet hooks in plastic, bamboo and wood. The brittany ones were lovely but I couldn't justify the price. I got a bamboo hook but it isn't great as the yarn sticks a bit too much on it, this doesn't happen on the plastic or metal ones.
We left after my friend got enough beads for a necklace or two. So impressed were we that we both said we'd love to set up a shop like that. Maybe someday...

Springwools and future projects

Springwools, Walkinstown, Dublin

I went here one saturday on the way to a friends house. It's quite a big shop and they stock many different brands of yarn, Noro, Debbie Bliss, Sublime, Patons, Sidar, Rowan, Kilcarra, lots of books and patterns and even some stuff for felting. So a great selection of stuff. I got enough yarn to knit tempting from knitty. It's Sublime merino silk cashmere aran in a lovely light brown colour, it's soft with a nice sheen. I also got 2 balls of multicoloured Regia sock wool to start my first pair of socks. Then I spotted some Kilcarra irish tweed in this great green colour. I got three balls and hope to make it into a felted bag. The service wasn't great in this shop, they are pretty old school and not so helpful to a new enough knitter like myself. I had wanted some cotton for a summer top and had the requirements from a pattern written down but as the wool was english and the pattern american I couldn't work out how much I needed. I asked the lady for some help and she was quite rude to me. She could have just told me to buy more than I needed, helping her sales but instead she left me not wanting to go back to this shop. It's a pity really.

Knitting

It rained all last summer and I couldn't do many of my outdoor hobbies so I did a lot of crochet and it was only a matter of time before I started knitting again too. Since Debbie Stoller's crochet book had been so good I decided to get Stitch and Bitch: The Knitter's Handbook. For good measure I also got Stitch and Bitch Nation also by Ms. Stoller. Stitch and Bitch is a great beginners book with lots of clear instructions about how to do just about everything you will ever need to while knitting. I refer to it all the time whenever I can't remember how to do things like ssk. Stitch and Bitch Nation is more about patterns and how to make your knit clothes fit you. It's very good also. I haven't made any jumpers from it but the information is very useful. Now that I remembered how to knit I decided to try a jumper.

I found another wool shop in Waterford on Patrick St called Needles and Pins. They stock a good range of wool including Sirdar, Patons and Wendy. They also stock a great selection of crochet hooks, knitting needles and stuff for tapestry. I bought a Sirdar Denim Knits pattern book and 7 balls of Sirdar Denim Chunky. With my Mum's help over the next few months I finished a cardigan. It's really nice and wearable too.

Hats Off

Back in August last year I got this idea that I would crochet. I don't know why as I hated crochet when I learned it first when young. I made one granny square that was going to be a cushion cover. It was supposed to be two matching squares but I got half way through the second one and gave up. I still have it and maybe I'll finish it eventually
I bought Debbie Stoller's crochet book The Happy Hooker. I'd recommend this book as it has lots of funky projects and the instructions on how to crochet are the best I've seen. A lot of crochet books are old fashioned and feature awful stuff in bad colours but this is different. I then needed wool and crochet hooks. These were more difficult to find than you would imagine. In the pound shop I got a ball of white acrylic to practice on and I found an old crochet hook of mine and tried out some stitches. I found a wool shop in Blackrock, Dublin called This Is Knit. This is a lovely shop run by two nice ladies who knit themselves, they stock all sorts of lovely wool like Noro and Debbie Bliss. So now armed with wool I started making some stuff.

Spring in Winter Hat:

This turned out well although I haven't worn it too much since I'm not a huge fan of red.

Fat Bottomed Bag:

This bag is also from The Happy Hooker and it's lovely. I was on holidays when I made this and it made long car journeys pass quickly.

I also got some wool donated to me. I got a few balls of purpleish mohair and so I used that to make the Cold Shoulders Capelet from The Happy Hooker. This got left on the back burner for a while but it eventually got finished. It was much easier to make than I thought it would be.