I'm stocking up for the future, ok?!

I promised that this post would actually be about knitting, and so it is!  

FOs

I thought for a moment that I didn't have anything finished to show you, then I realised just how long it had been since I last did a proper update!

So I do have a couple:

Socks that fit me perfectly!  Finished just in time for the warm weather to start, and the need for proper woolen socks to significantly decrease.

The very beautiful Rosie did not seem to be overly impressed with her Easter Bunny Ears, but I'm told that the look was very popular with many humans.

WIPs

I've got 3 active projects right now, 2 of them are KALs, and the third is a test knit of sorts.

Remember the knitted cupcake from the last update?  That was part of the current Shef Knit KAL, and the theme for this is pointless items.  That is, items that lack a purpose, rather than items that aren't pointy, although I did suggest that a doily might fit both descriptions!  I've always been baffled by the idea of knitted food.  If you're going to make food, then make it from something edible!  So my pointless knitted item is a small batch of cupcakes.  However, in order to motivate myself to actually make them, I've had to give them a purpose (I'm not very good at this pointless thing, am I?) anyway, I'm going to give them to my niece, because she serves me imaginary tea every time I see her, and usually a plastic boiled egg too.  This gives her something else to feed me :)

The problem I have is that the cast off day for this KAL is the 30th of April, so I've not got long to knit the remaining 2 cakes and 3 bun cases (all of the toy tea sets seem to have 4 cups and 4 plates, so there has to be 4 cakes!)

The second KAL I'm working on is with the Countess Ablaze group on Ravelry.  This year the Countess is taking her inspiration for a series of one of a kind colourways from Homers Odyssey, so this KAL has a similar, but broader theme - Greece.  The only condition is that you use Countess Ablaze yarn in your project, and that you explain how your project relates to the theme.  I believe some of the girls are having a private competition to see who can come up with the most tenuous, and yet still acceptable link to the theme!

I'm hoping to complete 2 projects for this KAL, as we have until the 1st of June to cast off.  This is where I'm currently at with my first entry.  The pattern is called Artemis, goddess of the hunt, and the design is supposed to represent her arrows.  I'm knitting it in Viscount of Spark, and the colourway is called The pedestal is waiting, a one of a kind colourway from last years Twelve Caesars collection.

My second entry, if I can manage it, will involve me first finishing the sweater quantity spin that is currently occupying all of the bobbins on my wheel, so that I can spin this smooshy beauty, and hope that I've acquired sufficient skill at spinning to produce something around a sport weight.

I'm really excited about this one, and I hope to be able to tell you more in about a month :)

Finally, there's the test knit.  Well, actually, it's not a true test knit, as the pattern has been finalised and released, but a request was made for people to knit a few versions using Countess Ablaze yarns.  The pattern is Ribs to go, by Susan Ashcroft, and there are 3 slightly different versions.  I really want to knit the lace rib version, so I did try that one first, but as you know I am a really big fan of variegated colourways, and lace often doesn't work so well when there are lots of colour changes in the fabric, the details of the pattern can become lost.  This turned out to be the case with this pattern.

This is the first few rows of the lace version worked in my chosen yarn.  It is very pretty, but I don't feel that it really does justice to the pattern at all.  So I ripped it out and started again following the moss rib instructions, and this is allowing the yarn to shine, as it should.

I've not got very far with this, as I've been spending most of my time working on Artemis, or spinning, but it is a great 'lazy' knit, you can more-or-less switch your brain off and get on with it while you watch tv, or sit and chat. 

I'm still determined to knit the lace rib version at some point, because I think it's beautiful, but I'll have to choose one of my semi-solid colourways for that.

*cough*Stash Acquisitions*cough*

You remember how I was recently made redundant?  You know how if I was a sensible person then I'd be carefully budgeting and saving right now?  Uhm, well, I'm not a sensible person.  I comfort-shop.  

I went on holiday last weekend.  Kelly has somehow managed to put up with me for 12 whole years, and we thought that the occasion deserved to be commemorated with a romantic weekend away together, a whole evening in the spa, lots of relaxing, apparently riding bicycles seemed a good idea at the time, although my bottom begged to differ for a few days afterwards, and there was a giant cookie too:

I'm procrastinating about the yarn hoarding, aren't I?

I also hired a car for the weekend, rather than steal Stephens again, and leave him stranded for 3 days.  This meant I had full control of a car, and I was just a few miles away from Nottingham, and Kelly wanted to go for a distressingly long bike ride... clearly all of this was telling me that I needed to let Kelly explore the world of bruised bottoms and aching thighs on his own, while I went to visit Eleanor at Knit Nottingham!  It's obvious, isn't it?

Well I had a lovely chat with Eleanor, and found some not-quite-white Masham yarn to go with my handspun for my second OdysseyKAL project (I'd love to think I could spin both yarns in time, but I know I'm not up to that just yet!), and maybe a couple of other things too.

Then, a few days ago, I was suffering particularly badly with my wrists, and realised that some sort of light support probably wouldn't go amiss from time to time, just when they're really bad.  I was at Stephens at the time, and the nearest pharmacy that would have tubigrip just happens to be right opposite The Haberdashery.  So I just popped in to grab a knitting magazine, and as I walked in, I spotted a gorgeous colourway of Zig Zag.  Having bought one of the new colourways in Nottingham, I knew that they've changed the fibre content of this yarn from 50:50 wool:nylon, to 75:25 wool:nylon, and in doing so they've discontinued the colourways in the older version.  The colourway I'd spotted was one of the older versions, so I had to snap it up while I could.

And of course, no stash update for me is complete without a big, gushing, girl-crush mention of Countess Ablaze.  This time it's even better though, as today (technically yesterday I guess, since it's nearly 2am) I went over to Manchester to a fascinating place called Ziferblat.  It's sort of like going over to your mates house for the afternoon, if your mate happens to live in a converted warehouse, and has invited a fascinating selection of Manchesters hippest young things to hang out there.  There's a kitchen area where you can stick the kettle on, and grab a biscuit, or a slice of toast, there's dining tables with chairs around them, and grown men and women playing Kerplunk, there's bijoux tables for 2 in quiet corners with people playing chess, there's coffee tables with comfy sofas around them (we claimed one of these for the greater good of the city state of Knitters), and today there was a sort of artisan marketplace going on in a side room.  The Countess was there, gorgeous as always, and she'd brought a huge pile of yarn and fibre to sell, including a few rare and precious skeins left over from previous updates or sock clubs, and some new repeatable colourways, never before seen.

I claimed 3 skeins of Lady Persephone sock yarn, and one Lord Kitchener lace.  Two of the sock yarn skeins were ones that I had coveted from previous sock clubs, that for once I'd been too sensible to sign up for.  These were called Masquerade, and Spirit of resistance.  The remaining sock yarn is one of the brand new colourways, called I like what you've done with the place.  The lace weight is another of my favourite Nerds prefer their rainbows darker, but I particularly like this one for how it demonstrates the different ways that the same colours can appear on different yarn bases.  This particular skein is really light, parts of it are like silver and gold, it's gorgeous!  The very first skein of Nerds that I bought was so dark it almost appeared black until it caught the light, and shone like an iridescent oil slick.  So different from this, and yet recognisably the same set of colours.

Here's a better look at those skeins, just because we love the yarn porn!

Oh, errm, there *might* be some fibre on its way to me too, because the Countess had a surprise one day fibre sale, so I took advantage and grabbed a couple that I loved the look of.  I'll show you those next time...

Not forgetting the Penguins!

Because of course, we've just missed international Penguin Awareness Day, on the 25th April!  Like anyone might not be aware of penguins, and their general awesomeness, and how humans need to stop messing with the climate so that penguins can keep Antarctica.  There, that was me being almost political!

I have 2 new penguins too :)  The first was my leaving present from Kiss Me Deadly, because our boss there was lovely, and took us all out for a goodbye dinner (OMG!  The BEST cheesecake I've EVER had!!!) and gave us all thoughtful little gifts.  Here is mine:

Then in the Ziferblat market place today there was a chap selling terribly geeky jewelry, including pin badges like the one that is now attached to my knitting bag:

So as you can see, I've mostly managed to keep myself happy and positive through intensive use of retail therapy this month.  Obviously I can't keep this up for much longer, but I'm hoping that it will see me through until I work out what's happening next.

In the mean time, just keep knitting!

ttfn my dears :)

Off Topic - On the subject of being a fat girl who likes to exercise.

Sorry guys, I'm all wound up about something that has nothing at all to do with knitting, or penguins.  So I'm going to commandeer my own blog to have a bit of a rant.

This is my angry face!

Apparently Kelly doesn't like my angry face.

So here's why I'm angry - I'm a fat girl.  There's no getting around it, I'm somewhere around a UK size 20 (depending on which bit you measure).  If you're also somewhat above your ideal weight, then you've probably encountered that trip to the doctors where you tell them about some pain you're suffering from, and they get THAT LOOK.  You know the one, the one that says "you know what I'm going to tell you, but you need to know it's all your own fault for being so lazy."  Then they tell you that all they can do is advise you take some ibuprofen, and lose some weight.

You probably already know this, but it's a daunting prospect.  Every step hurts even when you're just walking, imagine how much worse it will be when running?  You're already carrying around an extra 75lbs (40kg) plus or minus some, on what you'd be carrying if you were your ideal weight (for a spherical human in a vacuum), you're painfully aware of how those extra pounds are going to wobble, and jiggle, and chafe.  You're self-conscious, you dread going to the gym and having the Beautiful People watch you struggle, and gasp, and sweat.  

But you decide you're going to go for it.  You take the next step, thinking this may be the hardest thing you've ever done in your life...

Here's how that decision began for me: As you already know, I like to run, regardless of what my joints and tendons may have to say on the advisability of such activity.  I didn't think I would like running.  I stopped anything that resembled a track event when I developed breasts and hips.  Then a few years ago Kelly really got into the running thing and said I should do it too.  I laughed and told him I'd run if he could find me a sports bra that actually worked!

Eventually, to my utter amazement, he found me this.  It's the Panache Sport bra, and it is not only available up to an H-cup, it actually gives comfort and support to those of us who are somewhat over-generously endowed.

I thought the bra would be the hard bit, and I blithely assumed that once I'd found that the rest would be easy.  I was wrong.

Running shoes were fairly easy to find.  The guy in Up and Running was really nice, and although he couldn't do anything to stop me feeling self-conscious, and out of place, he at least didn't do or say anything to make that feeling worse.  He helped me choose some very expensive, but very comfortable trainers.  So far, so good.

So now we get to the rest of the running outfit, and here the problems start.  

I searched the fat girl shops for running trousers, and I couldn't find any.  Because fat girls don't run, right? 

I tried the proper sports shops.  Here I was either studiously ignored as I wandered through aisles of climbing harnesses, GPS devices, and barefoot trainers, looking lost.  Or I was immediately approached by a tanned, bleach-blonde beauty who asks me "Can I help you?" in a tone of voice that clearly states "Nobody can help you, go back to your sofa and eat your cake." When I ask for running trousers in a size 20-22 she looks thoughtful for a while then tells me that there's some relaxed fit yoga pants that she thinks might go up to a size 18.

I end up with some generic jersey 'active wear' trousers from a big department store, Debenhams I think.  They cost me more than the high-tech moisture wicking, hard-wearing, designed for purpose trousers would have, but have none of these properties.

A few weeks later I'm noticing thinning and bobbling of the fabric on the inner thigh region, and by a month or 2 later my expensive jogging bottoms have developed gaping holes, and my inner thighs have developed massive friction burns.

I repeat this cycle over, and over, and over again.  This rant is brought to you courtesy of a search for plus-size sports wear that produced a couple of links to ranges available up to a size 16! Wow! And a whole raft of links to forums posts on running sites where people are asking "where can I buy running clothes that will fit my big bottom?"

So tell me, if it's so important that we all "Be Inspired", that we all "Get Active", that we all "Push ourselves that little bit harder", then why is the equipment necessary to do this only readily available in sizes 8-14?

Just don't even mention Swimming!

Every time I talk about the fact that I run, and how difficult I find it, how much it hurts, how hard it is finding running trousers, someone brings up the 'S' word.

If you think finding affordable running trousers in a size 20 is hard, then just try finding a swimsuit in a 36GG!  And yes, it does need to be sized by cup-size, because no size 20 swimsuit has adequate accommodation for these puppies!

Add to that the fact that it costs to enter a swimming pool, you can only do it when the pool is open, and isn't hosting some sort of gala event.  You have to strip naked in a room full of other people, and regardless of how much you tell yourself they're all more worried about their own appearance than yours, you still can't stop yourself from believing that every teenage giggle is about the wobbly pile of cottage cheese with the weird scars that you're watching yourself squeeze into an ill-fitting scrap of lycra.  Then you have to take off your glasses and enter a slippery, humid, and cloying environment, smelling horrifically of chlorine, and you can't even see where you're going!

No.  I won't go swimming.

Sorry about that guys!

I promise there will be some knitting bloggage soon!

In the mean time, here is a knitted cupcake:

Underwear and Etsy

Oh my, I'm not even sure where to start with this update!  So much has happened in the last few weeks.

Underwear

OK, I'll start with the real life bits.  As you may know, up until now my day job has been working for the vintage inspired lingerie brand Kiss Me Deadly.  Sadly, due to a restructure that sees the warehouse being moved away from Sheffield, I have been made redundant.  I've loved working there, not least because the warehouse manager was another knitter, so we could spend our breaks discussing yarn, and patterns, and wondering if we could get away with knitting stockings and calling it work.  All good things must come to an end though I suppose.

What concerns me now is that my health is such that I may struggle to find new employment.  Don't you worry about that though, I've got some ideas about where to go from here.  More on one of those later!

FOs

Despite all of the excitement, I have managed to finish some things:

This is my Mostly Green March KAL from the Stitchnerds Ravelry group.  The pattern is Sand Ripples by Susan Ashcroft, and the yarn is Viscount of Spark, in the colouway Pond Scum, by Countess Ablaze.  I think this is the first KAL I've actually finished on time since September.

This is crochet!  I'm not very good at crochet, but sometimes it's the best way to create the effect you want.  In this case, I wanted to make a new flower to fit on the empty stem left over from a chocolate rose I was given for Valentines day.  Even better, I made the yarn myself too, spun on the turkish spindle that my dad made for me, from a small sample of Countess Ablaze fibre.

This has to do with something I'm going to talk about later, but for now it's just a simple knitted herb pouch.  It contains a selection of herbs known for their moth repellent properties, and I'm going to make a few of them.  Some of them will then live amongst my yarn and fibre stash to keep the evil beasties away.  I've been told that the pouch is witchcraft, as it has no seams at all, but that's just a cosmetic thing that I'm actually quite proud of.

Sadly, I haven't managed to finish my socks, nearly though!  Mostly I've been working on a sort of Easter bunny snood thing for a greyhound over the last few days.  I'm not going to post photos until I have some of it being modeled by the lovely lady herself, although I do feel a little guilty at my participation in her humiliation!

Stash Enhancement

Uhm, yeah, so this is two updates in a row that I've felt the need to make this a section of its own.  There have even been a few acquisitions that didn't come from the studio of Countess Ablaze believe it or not!

See!  The James C. Brett Aztec in grey and pink was bought specifically for the doggie snood, the Rico baby DK is just in case I run out of the leftovers I'm planning on using for a new KAL that starts today, and the King Cole Tinsel chunky is because I saw a pattern in my local craft store that I couldn't resist.  You'll see that later too.

This one is super special.  After a very long day that involved driving far enough north to get a decent view of the solar eclipse, afternoon tea with my dad and Trish (my step-mum), a trip into Newcastle city centre to buy dog snood yarn, an evening of more chatting and dinner with dad and Trish, then driving home, it was about 20 to one in the morning, I was exhausted, and just filling in the parking slip that allows me to park on my own front street when Stephen came through with a familiar looking parcel to announce that my "crack" had arrived.  I pulled a confused face, because I wasn't expecting any deliveries, them opened the parcel to find this Viscount of spark sock blank in "on my merry way" gradient, and a note from the Countess herself saying "Just because."  I nearly cried!  As if I didn't love that woman enough already!

This is from the latest Odyssey Trail update.  Viscount of spark, colourway "A good full portion of trouble".  Purple, green, and sparkly, impossible for me not to buy it, even though this is the last month that I'll have a guaranteed pay-check coming in.

Another from the latest Odyssey update, and it's Viscount of spark again (can you tell that this is my favorite yarn base in the world?)  The colourway is "Their graceless speech I shrink from".  It's another one that I just couldn't get the colours to show true on, but the deep red and bright blue look amazing together.

Etsy

As well as knitting, I love making pretty things with beads.  The difference is that there's a limit to how much jewelry one person can wear, but you can never have too many pairs of socks, or shawls, or sweaters.  After my first experiments with lace knitting though, I learned just how useful stitch markers can be, so I made some for myself.  I was then asked to make some for friends too, and they asked why I didn't sell them. 

At the time I felt that I didn't want the pressure of making for other people, but as I no longer have a day job, I now have plenty of time to make things to sell.  So I've set up an Etsy stall, and I've called it Knitting and Penguins!  It doesn't have much in it just yet, and I'm afraid the quality of the photographs is dreadful, but I'm working on finding a way around the terrible lighting in my house.  I'm planning on adding more of the herb pouches to the Etsy shop too, as soon as I've finished making them.

Penguins

Because there has to be penguins!

Cuddly, sparkly penguins!  I still have a pattern to knit a sparkly hedgehog for my sister out of this stuff, but when I do, I shall also be making myself a penguin.

At the same time as my Odyssey Trail yarn arrived, another mystery parcel with my name on it came though the door.  Kelly had sent me this bit of cuteness!

You know, I'm sure there's more that I've forgotten to say, but I can't think what right now, so that's all for now my dears.