Bakewell and Brexit

Ooh!  Politics!  

If you don't want to hear it, skip the first few paragraphs, but know that I'll be very disappointed in you for doing so.

No, I shouldn't just talk about the knitting.  I'm disabled, I'm deeply affected by current politics, I can't afford to just ignore what's happening.  Quite frankly, neither can you, whether you think that or not.  Anyway, my blog, I'll talk about whatever I want to talk about.

Today is the 2nd of November 2019, and I am still a European Citizen.  Our Prime Minister is not (to the best of my knowledge) dead in a ditch.  This proves that he can't keep a promise, as though any more proof were needed.  Personally, I am very pleased that Britain is still a part of the EU, and there are many reasons for that, not least of which the fact that this means my Human Rights are protected for a little while longer at least.  This is primarily a knitting blog though, so here's why it pleases me as a knitter:  The amazingly vibrant, diverse, and largely caring fibre craft community is kept going by independent businesses.  Think of the wealth of colour and texture your experienced at the last fibre festival you went to, think of the friendly people who run your local yarn store, think of the vast array of talent you can access by logging into Etsy.  Then imagine what would happen if every brand run by someone not born in Britain closed down.  Then every brand run by someone married to a non-British citizen.  Imagine that you have to pay a massive customs charge on every parcel you buy over the internet from outside of Britain.  

That's exactly what will happen if Brexit happens.  A little known bit of legislation went through last month which states that EU nationals, or anyone whose right to work in the UK is guaranteed by the EU, will no longer be allowed to be self employed following Brexit, even if they are granted "Settled Status", which is by no means guaranteed either.  Several of my favourite yarn brands would be destroyed by this, including at least one based here in Sheffield. 

In the unlikely event that the upcoming General Election does not result in another hung parliament, and that Boris does not manage to sneak back into Number 10 by bribing some other fascists to back him, then there is hope of a People's Vote on the final Brexit Deal.  Please bear in mind that there is a lot more at stake in such a vote than your Imperialistic Pride.

That is all on that subject.  Thank you for reading this.

Bakewell Wool Gathering

I went.  I over-spent.

I bought exactly what I'd intended to buy, plus a couple of skeins that I maybe shouldn't have, but I'm glad I did.  I would even have got away with the over-spend if I'd paid enough attention to my bank account since Bakewell to realise that the payment for my loom hadn't gone through until Thursday.  Unfortunately for me, all of my regular monthly payments are set to go out on the 1st of the month.  I thought I had plenty to cover them all, until the money for the loom suddenly went out, then a quarterly payment that I'd forgotten was due this month went out too!  So, my mobility scooter savings have taken a little bit of a hit covering my shortfall this month.  I'm really not very good with money.  I'll have to be much more careful at Nottingham Yarn Expo!  

Anyway, you don't want to hear about my financial situation!  You want to know all about the things in that photo!

Purchase number one for us at Bakewell Wool Gathering is almost always something from Rosie's Moments.  By "us", I mean the little group who regularly travel there together.  Krissy and Becky both made it with me this year, despite Becky's injury!  Sadly Dominey wasn't up to it.  I'm lead to believe she managed to over-spend on yarn online instead!  Anyway, immediately after getting our wrist-bands, Becky and I bumped into Nicole from our knitting group, she had promised to bring along a selection of left over sock yarn for us, as both of us are currently working on Mitred Squares Blankets.  When we turned to find Krissy after this, she'd disappeared!  At first I got a bit stressed about this, then I thought to myself that if she couldn't find us, she'd go to the Rosie's Moments stall, knowing that we always like to check out the sale bin first thing, before too many of the best colourways have been snaffled up!  Hey Presto!  There she was!

That's where I found these 2 skeins.  They seem to me to match perfectly, yet one is labelled "Rose", and the other is labelled "Fuchsia".  Maybe there's a tiny touch more purple in the Fuchsia one?  And those badges!  How cute is that sheep?!

Purchase number 2 was this, although obviously this photo was taken after I'd got it home!  It comes packed flat in a remarkably small box, so it wasn't too difficult to carry around with me.  This was a very good thing, as I bought this from Wingham Wool Work, who are always positioned in the back room of the Exhibition Centre, and that room can get unbearably busy and hot as the day goes on, so I wanted to get around that room as early on as possible.  Obviously, I'd done my research in advance, and knew exactly what I wanted, and who would be most likely to have them to sell at the show.

In case it's not clear by the way, this is a tabletop rigid heddle weaving loom.  Specifically, it's an Ashford 40cm Sampleit Loom.  In this photo, I'm in the process of warping up for the first time.

Also in the back room were All Wool that Ends Wool, with their selection of mini-skeins (who would have ever predicted that I'd choose to buy yellow of my own accord?!) and also these sweet little yarn cosies!  I've never seen such a thing before, and immediately loved the idea.  I tend to centre-pull from yarn cakes, but as you work your way through the yarn, the cake will start to collapse, and become untidy, especially if you travel with your knitting, as I often do.  These simple little cosies protect your yarn from snagging on needles and notions in your project bag, hold your cake together when it inevitably begins to lose structural integrity, and you could even clip it to your belt to carry your yarn for you if you wanted to knit on the go!

My yarn cosy in action!

I've been after one of these Celtic style shawl brooches for ages, but I'd only ever seen them in photos.  Then I was looking at pin badges on the Cat Designz stall, and there they were!

Here it is holding my shawl on while I was sat having a hot chocolate with the ladies, and discussing our purchases.

Look at those beautiful splashes of deep red!  I stopped to chat to Verity of Truly Hooked, and couldn't walk away without taking this with me.

So bright and cheerful!  That full sized skein makes me think of magical fire!  The mini-skeins were actually Mystery Mini's.  I always like to pick up a couple from Hey Jay, whenever I see her at a show.  I've never been disappointed, but this time I was overjoyed!  Krissy and Becky loved them so much that they both decided to get a Mystery Mini or 2 as well!

At the end of a full circuit of the entire show, I found Ducky Darlings, and their little baskets full of 10g mini-skeins.  One that's mostly my usual colour palette, and 2 that really aren't, just to keep a bit of variation in my blanket.

Then I remembered that I'd seen on Instagram that Triskelion would be at Bakewell, and realised that I hadn't spotted them on my way around.  I definitely wanted to take a look at what Triskelion had brought, because I love his work, and the fact that he uses traditional British sheep breeds instead of just more merino.  Don't get me wrong, merino is lovely, it genuinely is the softest sheeps wool, but other types of fleece have other properties that I love.  This blend in particular I adore - Blue faced Leicester for softness, and Gotland for that gorgeous sheen!  I'm a bit upset actually, because I saw on Instagram today that this base is being discontinued.  

In the first photo, of my entire haul, you can also see a little silver pot next to this yarn.  I'd already placed that in it's new home next to my knitting nest, and forgot to include it when I took the brand only photo.  That little pot contains an amazing hand made hand balm, with lemon and juniper, because this very talented man not only dyes these beautiful yarns, but also makes his own soap and skin care products!

I didn't buy this mini-skein, this was a gift off Krissy.  I can't get a photo that shows the colour properly, but it's actually a more burgundy red than it appears here.  Krissy said that she saw it and knew I had to have it (I'm always complaining that I can't find enough decent reds!)  She also found a stunningly bright pink yarn for Becky!  I'm afraid that I have no idea where Krissy found this, because if I'd seen it myself, I probably would have bought it for myself!  Thank you Krissy!

After we'd spent up, and sat comparing our various hauls, and had a nice cuppa, and generally recovered a bit from the bustle of the show (although it was better laid out, and less busy than previous years), we wandered slowly into town to get lunch, and a giant Bakewell Tart for Stephen.  I always take a photo from the bridge across the river, which means that if you looks back over a few years worth of Bakewell Blogs, you'll be able to tell just how high the river was this year.  It was centimetres away from bursting it's banks and flooding the road we took to the Exhibition Centre car park!

While resting before our trip into town (we had to rest for quite a while!  2 disabled women with limited mobility, and one very stubborn woman with extensive burns can't just run around at will!) we spent some time dividing up the yarn that Nicole brought for us, and winding it into little balls.  Many of the yarns had enough to split between all 3 of us, so that Krissy can finally start on the sock blanket she's been planning on making for years too!  Thank you Nicole!

The final vaguely Bakewell related thing to show you is my Bakewell manicure for 2019.  When it caught the light it had a pearlescent purple gleam to it, as well as the balls of knitting yarn.

October

Not all of October, obviously, as some of it has already been covered in my last post.  But it seems I've somehow managed to be quite productive during the last couple of weeks.

FO's

My first ever project produced using my new loom!  

I had no particular plan in mind when I setup the warp for this, but I did know that I wanted my first effort to produce a usable item, and not to merely be a practise piece.  I used several of the simpler techniques described in the introduction booklet that came with the loom, but the effectiveness of this very simple project is in the beauty of the yarn that I chose to use, and how it works up on the loom.

The yarns that I used are King Cole Baby Alpaca DK, in the colourway "Charcoal", and West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4-ply, in the colourway "Rum Paradise".

From this project I learned that weaving is very unlike knitting.  Setting up to weave takes a long time, and is quite physically intensive, but once you get going on the weft, the project seems to almost fly off the loom.  I also learned that I shall have to research some different methods of finishing my woven projects, as the only method described in the introduction booklet is this kind of fringing.  I hate fringing with a passion.  I spent long enough as a bellydancer to know that no matter how pretty it may look, fringing is a menace.  It is the cause of the vast majority of wardrobe malfunctions, and costume/prop/accessory interface error.  

I wasn't able to do much for Halloween, but I decided to knit myself a little seasonal decoration at least, and to give myself a break from yellow socks for a little while too.

I used some of my collection of terrible acrylic that came free with knitting magazines, it's not really fit for much else, but decorations don't need to feel soft.  The pattern is Pumpkin, by Cvetulka Knits.

 

On the subject of yellow socks, here's the second pair that I've made for the Marie Curie Christmas Sock Quest.  These ones took rather longer to finish, as they're a men's size 10.  I'm glad that my own feet are much smaller than this!

The pattern is a mix of my own sock pattern, and the Marie Curie Sock Quest Sock pattern, by Sherlock Knits.

I'm rather counting on the belief that Stephen's mum doesn't read my blog by posting this.  I've made it for her, as it's so cold and windy up on Shetland over the winter, I thought a lovely squishy cowl might be appreciated.  This one can be worn in different ways too.

The pattern is Belcarra, by Tin Can Knits, and the yarn is Sublime Yarns Lola, in the colourway 541.

My second project on my new loom was a sampler.  Technically I suppose it could be used as a scarf, but it's far too ugly for that!  Woefully uneven, full of mistakes, and terrible novelty yarn (the instructions said to use novelty yarn, but I don't buy novelty yarn! Later I decided to try these techniques with more normal yarns, and much prefer the effect produced!).  This time I did follow all of the instructions in the booklet, simply in order to learn, and practise those techniques.  I intend on hanging this in my new craft room, when I eventually get around to clearing the spare room, so Stephen's study can become my craft room.

The draft (apparently that's what weaving patterns are called) is from the Ashford Sampleit loom introduction booklet, and the yarn is Stylecraft Batik Swirl, in the colourway "Forest", plus various scraps left over from recent projects, and some utterly ludicrous bright pink novelty yarn that came free with a knitting magazine.

WIPs

Marie Curie sock quest, pair number 3.  These will be a woman's size 7.  Other details as for the previous 2 pairs.

Ugh!  I can't wait for this project to be finished!  This border is so much faff!  I'd managed to out it out of my mind while I worked on the pumpkins, socks, cowl, and weaving, but then it's still sat there waiting for the last few fiddly short row triangles when I'm done with everything else!  I'm determined that I'll get it finished this month, otherwise it will have taken me over a year to finish, as I started this last advent.

This is the first of my 2 Mitred Squares cushion covers, but I finished the second one before this, as I arranged the squares so that the border would be much simpler to work.

The pattern is based on the Mitred Square blanket tutorial by LuAnn Krug, the yarns are an array of hand dyed yarns, by various independent dyers, except for the black border yarn, which is West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4-ply, in the colourway "Liquorice".

I've not worked on this for quite a while, but a couple of the mini-skeins that I've acquired this month were DK.  A single 20g DK mini-skein is almost exactly the right amount of yarn to make a 15cm granny square! I also had some left over handspun, and other bits of DK, so I thought I'd get a few extra squares done while I was at it.

I call this my "Memory Blanket", as for the most part it's made up of yarn left over after other projects, and single balls of DK bought as souvenirs on various holidays.  It finally has a purpose too.  When both are finished, this will keep me warm in my new knitting nest, in my new craft room.

There is no pattern to it really, just lots of basic granny squares, that I will either sew together, or crochet together when I have enough.  "Enough" will probably be 81 squares.  There's a wide selection of yarns, commercial, indie, handspun, cotton, acrylic, wool, even a little silk!  But the 2 that inspired me to pick this up again have become the top 2 squares at the front of this photo.  Both are by Made by Penguins, and the colourways are Harmony, and Fireside.

Stash Acquisition

I've only broken my promise to myself not to impulse buy any more yarn once, everything else was already pre-ordered long ago.  Better than I expected to do to be honest.

My October Knitcrate Sock crate.  Remember that I changed my preferred "Theme" from "Surprise Me", to "Energise Me"?  Well, this was the result!

I didn't order these.  I'd been talking online to Lisa-Lou, the brains behind Made by Penguins.  Not only do we share a love of fibre crafts, and flightless monochrome sea birds of the Southern Hemisphere, but we also both have a wide stripe of geek, and have several medical conditions in common.  We compared notes on the best ways we've found to cope with various aspects of our health, and discussed the relative merits of walking aids versus mobility scooters.  She offered to let me try her scooter out, to help me choose what to get for myself.  Then a little parcel arrived that I wasn't expecting, in a Made by Penguins bag, and inside it was these 2 little beauties!  One of these has already become a granny square, as you've seen.

I wish I had a blacklight to show you how stunning this lot looks under UV light!  This is my Made by Penguins Halloween box.  100g of "Zombie Brains", specially dyed on 4-ply, instead of the usual DK, just for me!  Plus a neon rainbow of mini-skeins.  A penguin pin badge that glows in the dark, hand made stitch markers with pumpkins, and crystal beads, yummy sweeties, and the box is sturdy and pretty enough to keep and use to store bits and bobs.

This is my broken promise.  I saw that the Brian the Penguin wearing a santa hat pins were available, and didn't want to miss out on them, as they're limited edition.  While I was looking around the site, I also spotted these mini-skeins, and penguin stitch markers.  Of course it only seemed right that I fully support my new friend's business!

I confess that I have not actually got around to watching the new Dark Crystal series yet.  I'm determined that I will, as soon as I get the chance.  I loved the old film.  Banshee Yarns has created this club based on the series, with 6 mini-skeins each month.  Of course I ordered the whole 4 months in advance as soon as I saw it.

Then I forgot that I'd ordered it, and ordered it again (Terrible photo taken as soon as I unwrapped the parcel, still in bed).  So now I have 2 sets of the October set, themed around the character Rian.

Fortunately, Beth, the creator of Banshee Yarns, is very lovely, and very understanding, and has offered to cancel and refund my accidental second subscription for the remaining 3 instalments. 

I am willing to sell the spare set for the original price, if anyone would like them, but I can certainly find a use for them if nobody does!

My November Homespun Wonders Mythical Creatures yarn box.  The theme this month is "Winged Mermaid".  I can't wait to be a bath mermaid with this bath bomb!  This year is the first that I plan on having a properly sized Christmas tree since I was a child too, so it's nice to have at least one decoration to put on it!  

The yarn wouldn't normally be my choice of colours, but I actually really like it!  Especially the rosy pink colours.

Finn

Look at my dog, for he is adorable!

He seemed to like the pumpkins.

He likes my woven wrap, so he stole it.

He wasn't so impressed with the weaving process, at least not when it interfered with us playing with his ball.

He genuinely loves cuddles, and will happily lie on our chests like this, sometimes he even climbs up there himself if he thinks it's been too long since he received fussles.

I promise that he does get taken out for many lovely walks, it's just that recently it hasn't been me taking him out, so I have few photos of him enjoying the world outdoors.  I've been in flare for over a month, and just barely functional no more than one day in every four.

Penguins!

You've already seen several of my new penguin acquisitions in among my new yarn, but here is one of those same penguins in his new position on my handbag:

I genuinely don't even know if you'll be able to see this second photo clearly, my phone camera isn't very good at low light! But it should show Liam the Penguin, glowing in the dark!

It's winter.  The shops are full of Christmas tat, including totes toasties with penguins on them.

My sister saw this, and showed it to me.  Now I desperately want it, but I categorically do NOT need it.  Between us, Stephen and I already have 10 different bedding sets, including 3 different penguin sets, and one dinosaur, and that's not counting the spare bedding for the guest room!

Help me stay strong!!!

The things that insomnia, combined with a penguin obsession will do to a person...

I play Plants vs Zombies, but not quite often enough to be worth paying to get rid of the adverts.  So in the middle of the night an advert pops up that I can't dismiss for at least 5 seconds, I'm not interested, not even really paying attention, finger poised ready to click "skip ad", then something stops me, a picture of a penguin appears, with the words "available skin"...

There is very little point to the game.  You run around town, and anyone you come into contact with turns into a copy of you, unless you encounter another player, and their following is greater than yours, then your followers turn into copies of them.  The aim is to have the most followers at the end of 2 minutes.  You start off as a simple blue person, but improving ranks, and earning achievements rewards you with alternative skins.  In order to become a penguin, you have to come first in a single game, but without killing any other players (converting all of their followers = "kill").  I spent several hours holding first place until the last 10 seconds, but eventually I managed to get my win.  I don't care if I never win again, when I'm bored, I can run around turning everyone I encounter into a penguin.

On that note, it's definitely time for bed.

Night night my dears.