So long, June...

An interesting month. It started off really well, as I cut out a new gown, knit frantically on a new shawl and did a ton of spinning. Then I had an emergency root canal. I lost about a week in a codeine-clouded haze, in the worst pain I've ever been in. I couldn't even knit. Things picked up again after the dentist went to work, and I'm now mostly better.

So, things that happened textile-wise this month. I missed World-Wide Knit In Public Day because I was in the emergency room dealing with the tooth. Made up for it be getting to the grand opening of Loop's new shop a week later, though! The shop is amazing. It fills 4 floors. Two are full of yarn, one is the stock room, and the fourth is the future classroom. S and I got there early enough that we were among the first 100 people through the door, which meant that we received goodie bags!

A canvas shopper, some patterns, a discount card, some 2.5mm DPNs, point protectors and YARN!

And there was cake and Pimms going around too. The chocolate-walnut brownies were amazing. I didn't buy anything because there were so many people that it took over an hour to get to the till. I figure I'll go back at some point soon and pick up a few lovely things. It's really nice that a small business is doing so well right now that they need a bigger shop. Long may their success continue!

I also had a moment of knitting insanity. This is my new shawl. I started it last Sunday. I cast off on Friday and blocked it yesterday. A 6-day shawl. A new personal best!

The pattern is Ishbel, the yarn is the Noro Silk Garden Sock I bought with my birthday money. I knit it on 5mm needles. I only knit the first 4 rows of chart D and then went straight to chart E because I didn't have enough yarn for four more rows. I'm delighted with how it turned out.

I've done a load of spinning too, but that will have to wait until it's had a bath and dried before I blog about it.

Didn't make it

I decided that dinner and double-checking my packing was more important than finishing the sock, so I didn't get it done til the day I got back. I got home, had a cup of tea, unpacked, and sat down to finish that toe! All done now, I'm very pleased. :D

(The second sock isn't modelled because I've got a bandage on my right foot.)

I did a ton of knitting while I was on vacation, unsurprisingly. I was *this* close to finishing mum's heavy shawl, but I ran out of one colour of yarn! I was so vexed! In a nice save, though, the yarn shop is having a 20% off everything sale this week in honour of their birthday. Hubs went over yesterday and picked up the extra skein I needed. I wound it last night, spliced it on, and am sailing away again. Because I only needed the extra skein to do half a row, I decided to add a seventh repeat of the lace pattern. Bigger is always better for a heavy winter shawl! I've got 7 long rows of lace left, then I'll join the pink and work the garter stitch edging until I run out of yarn. I hope to block it this weekend.

One down, one to go

Had a surprisingly productive weekend, given how busy it was. After work on Friday I'd planned to do a load of knitting, but after ending up doing a bunch of housework in my wheel's corner I got out Roy and did about three hours of spinning! The bag of fiber I thought would never end is looking decidedly depleted, so with any luck I'll finish the singles this week and get the plying done next weekend.

Various trips around London on Saturday gave me the chance to get a couple more inches of garter done. Who knows, I might finish that this week too. And although I went into Loop, I managed to not buy any yarn! I went for a second 100cm circular needle for Mum's shawl, and left with only that. Now I'll be able to actually finish it.

And thanks to an afternoon celebrating Swedish National Day with my half-Swedish best friend and long train journeys on Sunday, I finished the first Monkey sock and got halfway through the cuff of the second! The purpose of the trip was to give hub's Granny her birthday shawl. It fit perfectly, and I think she likes it. My in-laws seem to think I'm a bit mad for loving knitting. Ah well. I think they're all a bit mad too, so it balances out. :D

Blown away

On the evening I went to see S for the final dress fitting, she handed me an envelope, along with a very definitive statement that she was not to be argued with! Inside was a gift certificate to Loop, our favourite LYS and the source of all the yarn for the dress. Incredibly generous and totally unexpected! I had told her that making the dress was going to be my gift to her, but she says that she hadn't realized how many hours of labour it was going to take. We both got a bit weepy at that point, although the perry we'd been drinking might have had something to do with that too. :)

She'd timed it well, as that very Sunday I'd been planning a trip to Loop for a book launch. Cookie A, designer of my beloved Monkey socks, as well as the Poms and many other gorgeous designs, has just brought out a book of new sock designs. I couldn't miss meeting her and looking at the sample socks she'd brought, and with S's gift to me I didn't feel guilty shopping when I'm supposed to be saving money.

I got the book. It's called Sock Innovation, and has pages and pages of great patterns, beautiful photography and fabulous instructions on sock construction. Cookie A was charming and graciously signed my book, even checking the spelling of my name, and allowed me to pick her brains on sock ribbing. Plus the owner of Loop baked chocolate chip cookies and oatmeal raisin cookies. Yum!

Loop have recently started stocking KnitPro knitting needles as well. I was tempted by the interchangeable set, but then sense struck me and I remembered that I don't really like circular needles. I also remembered that I needed a few more sets of sock needles as well. So, the Harmony DPN set followed me home too. I haven't tried them out yet, but they are beautiful. And they come in sets of 6 needles in case one gets broken!

The final purchase of the day was sheer indulgence. I've often lusted over beautiful and pricey yarns, but ultimately bought more sensible and economic ones instead. Not that day. S wanted me to enjoy myself, so for once I bought the gorgeous, expensive, frivolous yarn that I've petted so many times in the past. Two perfect skeins of Handmaiden Lace Silk in the colourway 'Stardust'. Blue, silver, black, grey... More than any colourway I've ever seen, this yarn is me.



When it grows up, this yarn is going to become a Laminaria Shawl. I've pored over that pattern countless times and have never found a worthy yarn for something that pretty. Now I think this is going to be the perfect marriage of pattern and yarn. For the time being, though, I'm just going to pet my amazing yarn and be happy that it's finally mine.

Thank you, S. Your generosity has made this knitter very, very happy. And it was a privilege making your dress.

I promise I'm not dead

Though you might think that from the infrequency of my updates these days. I am rapidly approaching the end of the dress, and it's eating all of my time. I feel as though I can't update my blog because I have no finished projects to show, and there's only so many views of a green blob one can take. The wedding is a week on Saturday. Thankfully, I'm off the hook for lining it. Given the state my elbows are in from all the crochet, that's a really good thing!

I've started the toe of the first of hubby's Thuja socks. His toes are quite wide, so I probably won't do the recommended number of toe decreases. I'm working on a novelty yarn garter-stitch scarf as well - the ideal project for evenings when my brain has switched off.

This past weekend was a major Kingdom event - Spring Crown Tourney. My home Shire was hosting, and I (foolishly?) volunteered as reservations steward. Assisting in the running of a weekend-long event for 100 people is not hugely relaxing, but it was a lot of fun. And it meant that I spent quite a chunk of time frantically sewing clothing together to wear to court. My fingers are itching to sew again! I'm pondering taking some time out from yarncraft after finishing the dress in order to ply a needle for a while.

Having said that, Cookie A is in London this weekend signing copies of her new book at Loop. And I have a good-sized pile of semi-solid sock yarn needing a pattern, and I did commit to making myself four new pairs of socks this year...

Those who can't knit go shopping

Or something like that, anyway! Instead of indulging in a morning of needlework, as I normally do on my Thursday mornings off, I decided to clean my flat. It needed doing, and there was a chance that I was going to bring a friend home with me later. So I tidied, washed dishes, and did not a single stitch of knitting. But there was a plan! Said friend had never been to my favourite shop and wanted some 2mm DPNs. I knew they had some in, and since she'd expressed a desire to meet for lunch, I suggested a shopping trip instead. So we met and went up to Kentish Town. 'Twas great. She ended up with a bunch of stuff, and I bought white sewing cotton, cream-coloured bias tape and some wooden buttons. And then we sat in a cafe and poured over the charts for one version of Eleanor of Toledo's Stockings, a very popular piece of historical reproduction knitting. She'd been confused by the written pattern, which seemed to omit some decreases needed to make the patterns match up around the leg. And I, obsessive that I am, just had to rechart the lozenge pattern on the cuff so that it was symmetrical. And we discussed the relative virtues of an assortment of double decreases. I'm fondest of the one showcased in Grumperina's Jaywalker Socks (remember those?), slip 2 together knitwise, knit 1, pass both slipped stitches over and off the needle. In fact, I'm so fond of it that I decided to replace the double decrease in the Swallowtail Shawl with it. It is just more nicely centred, in my opinion.

Anyway. The thread and the bias tape are for the chemise that I worked on on Saturday. I still can't believe that I ran out of white sewing thread. The buttons are for a project that hasn't even been cast on yet! Remember about a year ago when I finished knitting that blanket that had been in the works forever? Well, I still have more of the blue yarn left. So I decided that for her birthday this year, my best friend would be getting a matching pillow. I'm planning to just work a big sack of seed stitch on circular needles and graft one end closed when I finish. No seaming! Just miles of seed stitch. So now I've got some big wooden buttons to hold a flap closed once it's done. (I'm a fan of removable cushion covers. It prevents spillages.) Given that her birthday is less than a month away, I maybe should start working on it...

Lots of progress, no more finishing

I may bite my tongue later, but I don't think I'm going to finish anything else this month. Although it'd be nice if I did!

I was home sick from Friday until yesterday, and I got quite a lot done as a result! Well, up until Sunday, which was when I got to the dysfuntional part of the cold. On Friday I managed to finish the green and yellow mitts for my mother, and I'm quite pleased with them. They were very good practice for working corrugated ribbing, of which there is a lot on the Ivy League Vest I'm hoping to make some time this year. And because I've finished the mitts, I can now add the remnants of the yellow and green yarn to the mini-Who scarf and finish up a fourth goal! Mmmmm, mindless garter stitch.

After finishing the mitts, I decided to indulge in a new project. One of my goals was to knit up the crimson Posh laceweight that I've been hoarding. Trouble was, it was only 400m of yarn, hardly enough to make a shawl and I didn't really want a laceweight scarf. And then Knitting Daily published the e-book of old patterns that was supposed to have come out back in March. Contained therein was the pattern for the Swallowtail Shawl, a truly gorgeous pattern that calls for... exactly 400m of yarn. And just after they published it, the Posh Yarn Group on Ravelry decided to have a knitalong for the Swallowtail. Destiny, surely. So I cast on. The pattern is delightful. It flows beautifully, and each pattern repeat is only 6 rows long. And only 3 of those rows actually have pattern on them - the others are just purling back across. I've finished the first chart and done 4 of the 14 repeats of the second chart. There are then 3 border charts to work through, although they are each only worked once.

The 3rd and 4th charts are interesting. They contain nupps, which are a bit like miniature bobbles. On one row, you do a whole bunch of increases into one stitch, and then on the following row you purl all of the increases together to get back to where you started. There is a popular alternative to the nupps where you add a bead to the knitting instead of working a nupp. Much easier, and uses less yarn, so very good if you're worried about running out. Now, I live close to a bead shop, but I was concerned about being able to do the beads. You see, unless you want to go to the trouble of prestringing all of the beads (which is really bad for the yarn), you need to have a tiny crochet hook. Tiny enough that the head and the shaft fit into the opening of the bead. I had some pretty small crochet hooks, but nothing on that scale. And then I went to the shop on Saturday.

It was an honest trip - we were going to the recycling centre on our way somewhere else, and the shop was just before the centre. So I waited in the shop where it wasn't raining while the lovely spouse got rid of an ancient computer monitor. And I found a tiny crochet hook! This sucker is only 0.6mm in diameter. So, I bought the hook and some black beads to go on the red shawl. Goth I may be, but I was inspired by the Kitri Socks.

And then we headed off to our somewhere else, and I got to be even more productive! It was our monthly Shire Revel, and we'd decided that it was going to be a day of garb-making. So I spent Saturday morning cutting out the pieces of a chemise, and spent Saturday afternoon assembling them. Well, I pinned, and our Seneschal ran them up on the sewing machine. I can use a machine, but she's much quicker than I. Especially since it's her machine! So the result of the afternoon was a completed seamed chemise. I just need to hem the skirt and cuffs, finish and apply trim to the neck, and finish the insides of the seams. And the insides aren't really a priority. I can work on them here and there as the mood strikes me.

One of our members is a whiz-kid with a tablet loom, and had brought a load of trim for finishing her most recent gown. And when she had a bunch left over, she offered it to me for the new chemise! And this of course inspired me to strike a bargain. She's going to weave me a belt, and in exchange I'm going to knit her a pair of elbow-length fingerless gloves. She can knit, but isn't really good at it (her comment, not mine!), just like I could probably figure out a loom, but don't really have any desire to. So it works out well for us both.

On Sunday I dived into my husband's tunic, the one I've been working on for AGES. Or so it seems. The incredibly productive Saturday inspired me, and I've just about finished attaching the bias tape to the collar. There's still a lot to be done on it, but getting the neck nearly done makes it look a lot more like a proper piece of clothing.
And then my cold caught up with me, and I spent the rest of Sunday laying on the couch feeling like hell with a fever, and Monday mostly in bed resting. And crocheting the ripple bedspread. I went through the bag with my Mission:Possible stuff in it (and the contents are shrinking!), and pulled out all of the acrylic that isn't for the bedspread. It's now in its own bag so that I can just get on and make all of the little scrappy projects I need to do.

Pretty busy, huh?