Showing off

A finished cardigan and some ExTex stuff to show off - if you're not interested, look away now!
"Sonnet" from Knitty.com in Colinette's Giotto yarn, in the Monet colourway.
Yes, it is finished, and yes, it fits. This photo doesn't really do justice to the colours, they're much more colourful yet the overall effect is quite subtle. I'm very pleased with it and look forward to wearing it frequently when the weather gets cooler - oh, that'll be this weekend then!



Last Saturday and Sunday saw the end of year exhibition for the Experimental Textiles course that Lucy and I have been doing since last September. It was a very interesting show, but unfortunately I can only post photos of Lucy's and my work as I need permission from the artists to show anything else. There was an amazing array of work on show, from felted tents to knitted, fairy-lit jumpers, a bag of bags, wall-hangings, huge knitted tubes, wacky t-shirts etc, etc. I must say a huge "Thank You" to the wonderful Kim, our tutor, for being an endless source of inspiration and encouragement - check out her website on the "Stuff I like" bit in the side bar.
The photos:

This is Lucy's finished project, made of silk paper with stitched decoration, mounted on a very fine gauzy fabric. She wasn't happy with it but it evoked a good response in everyone who saw it and I was very proud of her.


This is my finished vase of flowers, all made of felt, apart from the centre of the sunflower which was rag rugging, and the centre of the poppy which was a tassel. The leaves were silk paper and machine embroidery.
I also had my nuno felted scarf and a rag rug on show, not sure why really, but they filled up a bit of space:

I don't know what I'm going to do on Monday evenings now, I really enjoyed the ExTex course and can't wait to start the second year in September......................... I suppose I could knuckle down and get knitting the four projects currently on the needles and the ones fermenting in the back of my mind......................... so much yarn, so little time!

Progress.............

.....at last! Having ripped the whole body of "Sonnet", I have now reknitted it completely and it fits! Yep, I will actually have a cardi that fits. Have done about six inches of the first sleeve and am quite hopeful of finishing the whole thing this weekend as I have a couple of days off work. I'm still potty about the colours so I think this will be something that I wear over and over again. (Just as well really, considering the cost).
When sonnet is finished, I'm going to concentrate on my chair cover, which hasn't been touched for at least two months. There's still quite a bit to be done - the insides of the chair back and all the cushion pieces - but at least it knits up fairly quickly.
This weekend (25th and 26th June) we are having our Experimental Textiles End-of-Year exhibition at the Connaught Centre in Hove. It is open from 10am - 4pm both days and definitely worth seeing if you're anywhere near. I'm not bragging for myself, but there really is some amazing work there. I'll be taking pictures and will post them on here if I can get everyone's permission.
Short post today, got lots to do!

More care needed

It was all going so well - I started knitting "Sonnet" from Knitty's archives last Friday and yesterday I finished knitting the body. Yippee! I thought, I'll get the sleeves finished over the weekend and I'll be able to wear it on Monday to the final ExTex of the year. Last Monday I wore my silk top, which I had been knitting during class the previous week; this had led to some of my fellow ExTexers making comments about my supernatural speed, so I thought it would be funny to wear another new knit and see how long it would be before someone suggested sitting me on a ducking stool!
Alas, my plan has been thwarted by nothing more than my own impatience. I had worked out that my tension was 3.5 stitches to the inch and knitted accordingly. When I tried on the finished body, it was too long and too tight, so I measured again and discovered that I was actually getting 3 stitches to the inch and some sections that should have been 4" wide were only 3.5". My original swatch was a bit rushed (yes, I'm big enough and ugly enough to admit my mistakes) and in my hurry to finish I had been s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g- when measuring. Will I never learn?! Slapdash, or what?
Anyway, the net result has been a lot of frogging, even more cursing and a great deal of self-admonition.
Progress on "Sonnet" so far - about 1.5"!!!!
Despite all of the above, I am totally in love with the "Monet" colourway, so every cloud and all that!

Good excuse

No post for a week, tut tut tut, well I'm sure no-one's missed me. I do have good excuse for not blogging since last Saturday - I've been knitting. Yes, I've actually been manipulating two little sticks and some long bits of yarn and this is the result:

Ignore the acres of excess flab and concentrate on the knitting. This is the crossover top from the current issue of Vogue Knitting, made with Hip Knits 100% silk yarn in the "Dawn" colourway. I received the yarn in the post on June 3rd and the top was completely finished on 10th June. Obviously, that has meant no time for anything else like washing, cooking, cleaning, shopping and all the other stuff I'm meant to do, but I just couldn't put it down. The silk is soooooooooooo soft and really easy to knit with - I'm in love. I need to find another project that must be knitted in silk - it's just gorgeous, drapes beautifully, has a wonderful sheen and makes people want to stroke me when I wear it - what more can a gal ask!!

Last Sunday was "The Big Knit-in" at Brighton University. It was a really nice day, marred only slightly by what passes for English summer weather (i.e. cold, grey skies and intermittent rain). There were lots of people there and enough activities to keep even the most knitaphobic person interested. My favourite was the 4-feet long knitting needles made from broom handles - definitely a two-person job to knit with them. I don't know if this was a one-off event, but I for one would be happy to see it become an annual feature in the knitting calendar.

Today, as we all know, is Worldwide Knit In Public Day. I met up with a few friends in Lewes and we sat on a public bench in the High Street knitting and goss, oops sorry, chatting for about three hours, but no-one spoke to us or asked why we were there - I was all ready to evangelise about the beautiful craft, but NO-ONE WAS INTERESTED. Can you believe it? Lewes doesn't deserve us!

Later we went to a small textiles exhibition in a little village north of Lewes and saw some amazing "pocketed knitting", where lots of little pockets are machine knitted from very fine thread and objects are put into the pockets - anything from cigarette butts to pistachio shells and scraps of fabric. Try this link: http://www.pharmacopoeia-art.net
(hope this works, haven't actually tried it yet). There was also some very theatrical head-dresses/hats by Jools Elphick, some lovely silver jewellery, felted objects, hand-knitted jumpers and hand-woven, hand-dyed wraps. There was also delicious coffee and walnut cake, but that wasn't part of the exhibition, just temptation lurking in the corner!

Altogether a very enjoyable day, finished off by knitting with my new Giotto yarn from Colinette and a glass or two of a rather nice merlot. Bliss.

Crisis over

Inspiration has returned, in the form of two parcels that have arrived over the last two days (only one photo though)

That's Colinette's Giotto in the Monet colourway (left of pic) and HipKnit's 100% silk in "Dawn" colourway.
The Giotto is going to be a cardigan and the silk will be a short-sleeved crossover top, both for me hee hee hee (well you didn't think I'd buy such luscious yarn to fritter away on other people, did you? Come on, be reasonable).
I have a colleague at work who is always (and I do mean always) impeccably dressed - she wears beautiful clothes with an individual touch and has just the right accessories and jewellery to go with them - and I always feel a bit of a frump next to her, so I'm hoping that these two new garments will address that feeling, at least a bit. I know she will approve of the colours, what a shame I can't knit myself a new slimline body over the weekend!
Tomorrow is the Big Knit-in at Brighton University - check out the Cast-Off website for more info http://www.castoff.info . I'm really looking forward to it, the chance to see what other knitters are up to and to see the displays by the students, not to mention the bar and BBQ.
Must go, that yummy yarn is calling...........................