Today is Stephen's birthday. Happy Birthday Stephen! This means that tomorrow it's allowed to be officially "Nearly Christmas". We have already made our various travel arrangements for visiting families over the festive season, and I've made my plans for Advent (There will be an entire extra post about that coming tomorrow!) but so far no decorations have gone up, and no presents have been bought or made.
I'm not going to do my pre-Christmas rant about consumerism this year, because between Brexit, Trump, Austerity, Climate Change, and that bit on Blue Planet where they showed all the plastic in the oceans, I think that most people I know are either too poor, too environmentally conscious, or both, to be buying loads of unnecessary Christmas tat. For the first time in my life I don't feel guilty that I have no plans to buy loads of presents, because for the first time in my life, I feel like everyone understands why.
Anyway...
This month included a yarny event fairly close to where I live (relatively speaking), that I've never attended before:
Nottingham Yarn Expo
I do confess to getting a bit lost while trying to find the venue however, but I blame Google Maps for that, as it dropped the pin in completely the wrong place! I ended up phoning my friend Rachel, who I'd planned to meet there, and begging her aid in finding the place!
This was my haul from the day.
Let's break it down:
Before I go any further, I'm going to point out the tote bag that is the background to all of these photos. I own many tote bags, but I always want more. I deliberately didn't bring a tote with me, with the intent of buying one of these event bags as soon as I arrived to carry my acquisitions with me.
Hannah also makes these amazingly detailed little hand-beaded stitch markers. I knew that she was making lots of them for this event, and I knew that in the past she had made penguin ones, but I hadn't seen any penguins in her pre-event sneaky peaks. However, upon arrival, I was talking to Rachel, and mentioned that I was looking for the corner of craft stall, in the hope that there would be beaded penguin stitch markers. As it turned out, I was within ear-shot of the stall in question, and Hannah heard me, and brought one over to me! Just look how cute it is! Now, I do have to admit, that when you first see them, the price seems a bit daunting for just 1 stitch marker, but then you look at the quality, the detail, and the sheer amount of work that must go into making each and every one, by hand, and realise that they are totally worth the price!
Hannah's yarn dying business is called Chromatic Yarns, many of the colourways have a Dungeons and Dragons theme, and her logo features a D20 (20-sided dice). As I'm also a Role-Playing Game geek, I had to have one of her little button badges too.
I do feel a little bit guilty about this purchase, because Rachel showed me these not only because she knew I'd love them, but also because she wanted help in choosing which ones to get for herself, and of course although she didn't say so until after I'd bought them, this was the pair that she would have liked the most. She did buy 2 other pairs though, one crazy neons, and one full rainbow, so I don't think she was too upset. At least I hope she wasn't!
This one is called "Disco Inferno", and although I think they're meant to be used to make socks, I can't possibly use them for something that's going to be hidden beneath my boots. These colours are almost literally screaming to be seen out in public!
I managed to walk right past the Black Elephant stall first time around, but after stopping for a rest, and a cuppa, sitting on a comfy chair, with a coffee table, with a view of many of the stalls, where we were joined by a couple of girls from Rachel's local knitting group, and one beautifully be-corseted young goth, who apparently decided from our appearance that we were "her type of people". As knitters do, we then started to show each other the things that we had purchased so far, and several of them had some truly gorgeous skeins from Black Elephant, so I left them all with my bags, and went to find the stall for myself.
Black Elephant is actually a local (to me) dyer, as she lives in Sheffield, but I've never managed to get my hands on any of her yarns before. I am especially pleased by the yarn that I chose, as not only is it beautiful, it is part of a fundraiser for the Plastic Oceans Foundation. While researching this blog post, I have also discovered that her partner is behind a new low-waste shop that has just opened in Sheffield, and which many of my friends are overjoyed with. I am very proud to have these people living in the same city as me!
This colourway is called "Ocean Warrior", on Superwash merino sock yarn.
Although I bought from Hey Jay at Bakewell Wool Gathering, which was less than a month before Nottingham Yarn Expo, I couldn't resist these, because they were wrapped up in little mystery packets, so you had no idea what the colourway inside would be! I love mysteries and surprises like this, so I had to get myself a couple. I surprised Jay too by not opening the packets right away. Apparently many people open them as soon as they've paid for them, and this makes her really paranoid that they won't like the colourway that is inside the packet. I wanted to prolong the suspense though, so I saved opening them until Rachel and I were sat in Wagamama's waiting for lunch to arrive. We weren't the only yarnies to choose this place for our lunch either, as our waitress looked at us in bemusement, and asked if there was some sort of wool event going on, as loads of customers had been in with "massive bags of wool"!
Needless to say, I am perfectly happy with greens, blues, and purples.
There were only 2 of these enamel pin badges left by the time Rachel and I reached The Loveliest Yarn Company stall. It's almost like it was fate or something!
I am cursing myself right now for not recording the name of the stall that I bought this book from. I've searched the internet for ages trying to find a photo that includes the stall, and shows it's name. Unfortunately, although I have found photos of the stall, they are from too far away, or the wrong angle, or there are people stood in the way, so I can't discern the company name. They also sold a rainbow of solid cotton crochet yarns, and little decorative wooden items with holes drilled through for you to sew your own yarny design onto.
None of that meant anything to me after I spotted this book with patterns for knitting my own penguins in it.
There are many places that you can buy this book from online, but I prefer to give you the link to the author's own page - Mini Knitted Christmas, by Sue Stratford.
My final purchase of the day was these 2 incredibly smooshy mini-skeins from Love Handeyed, in association with Woolmouse. None of the mini-skeins were labelled, so I just chose colours that I liked, and assumed that they were standard merino, if exceptionally bouncy and soft merino, but having checked out their website, I now suspect that the reason these are so very soft is that they're quite possibly 20% cashmere! If this is indeed the case, they were an absolute bargain!
All considered, I had a brilliant day, I loved the layout and the venue, and it was great to see Rachel again.
FOs
Back to the regulars now, bringing us up to date with everything that I've done in November.
The pattern is adapted from Scandi Baby, by Sophie Jordan, which was published in the Christmas supplement that came with Simply Knitting Magazine issue 178. The yarn is Sublime Yarns Baby cashmere merino and silk 4-ply, in the colourways "Paddle", and "Pinkaboo", and the pompom was from a pack of 12 multicoloured fauxfur pompoms ordered on Amazon.
In among the multitude of issues that I suffer because I have poor circulation, is a condition known as Reynauds Syndrome. It happens most times that I get cold. It's not dangerous, just painful, and annoying. So I wear gloves, and carry little hand hotties in my pockets. The problem with gloves though, is that you have to take them off in order to use a modern phone, which rather defies the point.
I saw a photo somewhere, and I can't find where, of something similar to these, that look like ordinary fingerless mittens, but the folded ribbed section is long enough, and snug enough, that when unfolded, it covers the entire length of the fingers, and the thumb. I thought "Ah! They will solve my problem!" So I invented a pattern, and made some, and I am very pleased with them!
Obviously the pattern is not available, although I might make it available at some point, This pattern is much easier to write out than my sock pattern! However, the yarn is Ring-a-rosie Marvellous High Twist, in one of her recent One Of A Kind colourways.
WIPs
This has been my primary project for the last week or so, because I've been a bear of very little brain, and haven't been able to handle much that's complicated, but this is just a few simple increases, and miles of garter stitch. Perfect.
I'm getting close to the end of this ball of yarn though, so soon I'll be starting on the ribbed section.
The pattern is TGV (High Speed Knitting), by Susan Ashcroft, and the yarn is another of Ring-a-rosie's Marvellous High Twist OOAK colourways.
My current portable project is a pair of socks for myself. They haven't got very far, because whenever I've been out and about, I've been too busy to stop and do any knitting.
My usual 3&1 rib sock pattern, and the yarn is Regia Design Line by Arne & Carlos, in the colourway "03653".
Before casting on the socks, I was temporarily without a designated Portable Project, but fortunately, by default, I carry the necessaries for the next square in my crochet Memory Blanket in my handbag at all times. So I've also finished another couple of squares on that while out for coffee (or festive hot chocolate, as the case may be) with dad and Davie over the last few weeks.
As a happy aside from this, one of the reasons that I've been up north several times this month is because Dad had another CT scan, and I'm pleased to say that while the change is small, the chemo is continuing to work, and the tumours are continuing to slowly shrink. We know that it won't be long until the chemo stops being effective, but given dad was told 2 years ago that his time left on this earth was probably only to be measured in months, I think we're quite happy with this.
There isn't really a pattern for this, it's just simple granny squares. The yarn in this particular photo is Woolyknit Colour Splash in the colourway "Rainbow".
Not much to look at, is it?
For this entirely inappropriately timed cast-on, I #BlameDunderknit. Dunderknit is another of the knitting podcasts that I follow, (I absolutely recommend that you do too!) and this month she announced her first ever Knit-a-long. Her thing is "Vicarious Knitting", that is the knitting that you wish you could be doing, when you're actually knitting practical items, gifts, or commissions. The yarn you've had in your stash for ages that's been whispering sweet nothings in your ear, begging to be used, the pattern that's been in your Ravelry queue since dinosaurs walked the earth (I might be exaggerating a teensy bit...) you get the idea though.
In my case, there are numerous contenders that I could have chosen, but in the end the one that won it's way onto my needles is the Glasgow Rose Stole, by Lucy Hague (my all-time favourite designer). This particular pattern has been in my queue for over 5 years, I had even bought the pattern at some point, but had never got around to casting it on.
The yarn is Fyberspates Scrumptious, in the colourway "Teal", and this has also been in my stash for over 5 years. I can't say now if I bought the yarn specifically for the pattern, or the pattern for the yarn, but either way, they've been intended for each other for too long, and I felt I should take this opportunity, when I had been given a perfect excuse to cast on something totally irresponsible.
It hasn't got very far because it starts with a provisional cast-on, followed by some pretty serious lace work, and because our printer has run out of cyan ink, it would not print in black and white, and new ink cartridges cost slightly more than the Hope Diamond, so I was attempting to follow the lace chart on my phone. I do not recommend this. After a pitiful few rows, a certain amount of tinking, and a fair amount of swearing, I gave up, and ordered a new printer in the Black Friday sales. The pattern is now printed out, but I haven't had the brain power to do anything more with this since then.
Stash Acquisition
With the exception of those things that I bought at Nottingham Yarn Expo, this is the only new addition to my stash this month. The colourway is called "Apple", but in all honesty, I've never seen an apple this colour! I'm very happy with it, because it matches my current hair colour (I was going for red and purple, somehow it turned out magenta).
For anyone who doesn't know, this is my November KnitCrate, because I love surprises, so I get a random sock yarn delivered to my door once a month.
Penguins!
I know that my hand-knit socks are sturdier, warmer, and fit better, but who could resist skiing penguins? The blue bits are also sparkly!
I am due to have surgery on my knee at some point in the next few months, which will involve an overnight stay in hospital. Obviously, this means I need new pyjamas. However, annoyingly, the fashion this year seems to be for pyjama bottoms with a slim cut, which I anticipate not going terribly well with whatever state my knee will be in after surgery. So I've bought my new PJs 2 sizes too big, meaning that the bottoms now fall off. I shall have to do some sewing. Still, I did manage to find some cotton jersey pyjamas with penguins on :)
Witness actual nail art! Painted by me! These are not decals, or transfers, these are the result of me working for 3 hours with tiny brushes and dotting tools, but I am very pleased with them!
"What is this?!?" I hear you say, "This is not a penguin! This is clearly a snowman!"
Ah! But look!:
Ta Da!
Magically it has become a penguin!
This is my Official 2018 Christmas Jumper. I will not knit such a thing for myself for 3 reasons:
1) You've seen how long it takes me to knit a one-colour sweater for my gigantic form.
2) I hate intarsia with the fiery passion of a thousand burning suns.
3) I cannot make magic sequin snowman/penguin motifs.
That is all for tonight my dears, but I promise that I shall be back tomorrow with exciting news about Advent! (Well, it's exciting to me anyway).
Goodnight!
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