part two really about module one

A few more pics to show Loraine (should she be watching) that I am really getting there with module one!

I've done the 3 samples of stocking stitch - in bamboo (grey), 'Australian wool' and a 50:50 acrylic nylon mix, which resists all attempts at blocking to prevent curl! I've dampened and pinned it - curled dreadfully - so I soaked and washed it, rinsed it, and pinned it out again carefully. Both times - completely dry by the end. Didn't want to steam block it because of that acrylic.

Curly as a curly thing in a curly world eating curly fries.

Pics (it's still pinne dout here, I was too depressed to take it after the pins came out:

And some ribbing samples. I'm hoping this really is the most boring element of the course... I know it is very Good for Me to do all this practice, actually pin myself down to exploring these differences, but it isn't very thrilling and takes a surprisingly long time.

I'm also looking for an aerial view to explore texture in one of the design elements of the course. Loraine kindly splits up the Expected Outcomes for the two strands of the Handknitting 7922 course - she's put lots fo work into the modules, and their are strands of design in each as well as strands of exploring fibres (wool this time - I've got that to do too) and technical knitting skills and finishing.

Module one seriously under way

So, finally I am really getting somewhere with module one of my City and Guilds course, from Loraine at WS Touchbase.

City and Guilds is a major organisation in the UK - here are a few relevant quotes: And a bit of history:

City & Guilds offers learners over 500 qualifications in 28 industry areas – so that they can learn skills that equip them to fulfil their career ambitions or enrich their leisure time.

F'rinstance:

100% of craft plumbers in the UK have a qualifications jointly awarded by us.

And a bit of history:

1878 - City & Guilds was established following a meeting of 17 of the City ofLondon’s livery companies, the traditional guardians of apprenticeships and work place training.  Its aim was to establish a national system of technical education. 

1887 - We hold the first international City & Guilds examination – in New South Wales, Australia

1900 - We are granted a Royal Charter of Incorporation which denoted City & Guilds acceptance as a recognised part of the constitution and national life of theUnited Kingdom. 

1907 - Imperial College founded – made up of City & Guilds College, Royal College of Science and Royal School of Mines

So you see, it's a major, internationally recognised organisation. (I'm putting some of this info here for Barb who's checking it out). Imperial College is now a (Science based) college of the university of London.

From the C&G, the course contains two parts - a common unit 'Design for craft', the same as you'd do if you were doing say, pottery, as I understand it. The expected outcomes are: 

1 research and select sources of inspiration and develop design ideas 

2 research and use contextual studies – contemporary, historical and cultural 

3 use a range of materials, mediums and techniques 

4 use a range of styles and sizes of presentation methods 

5 produce and present exploratory and finished design projects 

6 operate tools and equipment safely and effectively 

7 appreciate the application of general design development studies to the craft. 

The second unit is that specific to handknitting, and the expected outcomes are: I hope

1 apply innovative and complex design ideas to planning and making for the craft 

2 plan, prepare and manage the making of complex craft items to a design brief 

3 operate tools and equipment carefully, safely and effectively for complex techniques applicable 

to this craft 

4 make complex craft items to a high standard of craftsmanship, to a design brief 

5 appreciate the contextual influences relating to the craft at this level 

6 use effective presentation skills to display completed items.

I hope that's useful, Barb!

I'm going to post photos in a separate post, or else the fonts etc go haywire, turning into randomly enormous and tiny writing. hope it works this way!

Lace ribbon scarf for Torie

I've finished the scarf for Tor - from the Lace Ribbon Scarf, Knitty Spring 08 by Veronik Avery.

I did fewer repeats across, and sued some Hipknits laceweight silk I found very wiry, but a beautiful rich pink.

Blocking shots - sorry, I used similar coloured towels to minimise stains! (There was a bit of colour leakage in the wash, and I had pink fingers after blocking though not while knitting). So there's less contrast than might be ideal.

Birthday loveliness

Yep, it was over a week ago. I never said I was organised, or a prompt poster, but I am a grateful and happy recipient of various delights.

Fin made me a wonderful Pavlova (which I promptly pronounced incorrectly, he told me!) - My first, with passion-fruit. Delicious. No pics, we scoffed it rapidly! He also provided a rather beautiful handkerchief from India (one of his passions) properly hand-printed and everything (and apt as a I was having one of my snuffly allergy days). 

Bex dyed me some yarn - 'Emily the Car' colourway, which is funny if you realise that Kris thought I was car the first time Bex mentioned me. 

Some of the dark areas are greener than you can see here.

Sally and Lara gave me 1200m of this lovely two-ply/laceweight from Rubi and Lana

ass well as some beautiful knitty-themed fabric and a ?30s style needlework tin! 

Sandra, whose partner Mary-Helen was in NZ so not at my birthday Indian feast, introduced me to the ABC shop with a card for there - another place I keep on browsing now!

What a lucky jammer I am!

Messy - um Tues-ish-day

Sorry for blurry pic.

How I spent my Tuesday: making mess at the dining table - plunging into the C&G knitting course, module one. So far, a lots of talk, very little action, but today - ACTION! I'm going to enjoy this, Loraine.

Why, no, I haven't unpacked the shopping bags. Oh, you think that's a good idea to avoid tripping? Hmmm... I'll give it some thought.

I cooked rather lovely boiled chicken with veg and rice in one pot, made Nigella's Mum's saffron lemon sauce (a sort of hollandaise) and made lots of delicious banana bread. AND managed to scuffle round doing a quick tidy, hoovered under the bed (I promised this morning. Tried to take a pic of the dust levels there, but too dark), and washed up before Clare got back. She now phones from Central station (if she doesn't cycle) where she's about 25 minutes away; the perfect time for a procrastinator. A quick re-organise of stuff so that there are some clear spaces to eat and sit, and she feels happier coming in and the evening is happier too!

This is what JoVE talked about in her post yesterday (well, a bit of what she wrote) - negotiating shared household space and tidiness/mess. 

I'll include a pic of what Clare naturally just does with her potential mess when she gets in :

Amazing to me!

Consistency (in blogging as elsewhere) is clearly my middle name.

So - well, Sally and JoVE re the silly youtube thing - can't remember where I found it. Has the hallmarks of a web-wander from Kris's blog, land of the entertaining link, but I'm not sure. I wouldn't know how to find such things independently, honest!

Anyway - Felix, I really will post further mess tomorrow (when it is Tuesday). I am meant to be having a massive clear-up, including hoovering under the bed (Clare says it's vile; I protect myself by not looking). We'll see what delights I find for everyone. The whole tidy side/messy side is played out in our whole lives, works at the dinner table, on the sofa (where I nest with projects surrounding me. Where's the camera? I ask - on the sofa says the long-suffering C). 

I've decided not to feel guilty, c'est moi, and I am now officially middle-aged and unlikely to change such ingrained habits. Neither of my parents is very tidy, Mum perhaps worse in the creating-piles dept (or at least she was when she was stressed out working-woman). There was a famous occasion when Dad went spare (not uncommon for any of us in our household, we row, rather than stiff-upper-lipping like proper Brits should) over the massive piles of crappy post in the hall. Eventually he threw it down the garden path; whereat Mum stepped delicately over it and went to work. 

I must say I quite like her style! (Dad's wasn't bad, either; at least it wasn't passive-aggressive!)

Anyway: knitting. I have been. What is more, I have Swatched. Against my nature, but actually quite fun, I've been finding! Here is the evidence:

The pink is in progress (2/3rds done perhaps?) to be a Lace Ribbon Scarf a la Veronik Avery in Knitty, except I've used a laceweight and done fewer pattern repeats across. I plan a knitted on edging to fan out a bit at each end. This is for Torie, the beautiful Lil' Miss Chievous the Burly Babe, who's had a recent unfortunate incident involving a disc in her neck. She is now Officially Bionic, with a prosthetic disc, and plans to channel Isadora Duncan in the way of neckwear (though more safely, I trust). Hence: 

My other swatches are for Pinnacle Chevron Rib, seen in Molecular Knitting's scarf here and charted here by Angela Hahn of Knititude, where she has a plethora of patterns using interesting stitch patterns and -often - not wool (or at least compounds of wool and Other, suitable for the Souther Hemisphere knitter). Lutea Lace Shell and Wave skirt, both in recent Interweave Knits magazines are hers. I'm going to use some dark sheep yarn, from New Zealand for this - and plan on a plain jumper (or maybe cardigan) with shaping by changing needle size. My swatch includes 2 needles sizes here:

which doesn't quite do justice to the beauty of the yarn.

Then, i've been wittering on about doing Knit in Chunks by Miss Twiss as she says, a sort-of knock-off of the Pringle sweater that has influenced so many designers (even Lion Brand, I gather!) I'm actually going to do KIC but using cables from Silver Belle, Debbie Bliss's freebie contribution to the 25th anniversary issue of Vogue Knitting. I don't like that overall nearly as much, but I do enjoy the twisting cable. See the green swatch above (started at the bottom with 6mm needles, then 5mm, ended up with 4.5mm, so that's what I think I'll use, certainly for the cable around the bodice so that it doesn't stretch too much sideways). It perhaps looks plumper in the cable in the 5mm, so may use that for the vertical cables that have less pull on them.The yarn is Rownspun Aran tweed, discontinued and available for £3.50 a 100g skein from the wonderful Cucumberpatch in Stoke.

Have I already written about all this? I feel I may have...

Maria - how's the Socks that Rock? I have never met this yarn in person, but a massive (£1800AUD) order has been sent by Australia to BMFA, the dyers, so I hope to soon (no, didn't order). I have, however, ordered some yarn from my mate Barb of Lost Flock Fibers on Etsy - some called Good Dirt I couldn't resist! What a name!

My current knit-while-Clare-practises-Poi-at-the-foreshore, or knit-at-groups project is my bodged-together pattern socks here: 

I'm rather enjoying the spiralling effect. This is the Glacier Lake colourway in Down Home sock from Knitivity, which I'm finding a beautifully, intensely dyed great work-horse of a yarn.

I prefer to buy yarns like this from Ray and barb, knitters I've met online with small operations - STR seems a bit too popular for me! (Inverse snobbery? Discuss!)

Amusing to me, anyway!

Messy Tuesdays

The entertaining and thoughtful blogger, Felix, of Felix's blog and the Missability Radio Show has come up with the idea of posting pictures of our messes on Tuesdays - me being messy is practically a feminist act, dontchaknow, not just idleness! (you've no idea how affirming I find this - I'm 40 and have totally failed to come up with a way to be tidy. V hard for C, who is!) I shall quote Felix herself:

Tired of balancing career, housework, self-care, social life, blog-life and knitting-projects beneath a veneer of carefully groomed perfection, Messy Tuesdays are a strike in the direction of The Unideal Home Blog: a celebration of things as-they-are and an affirmative reminder to everyone out there who despairs of the state of their sink/bedroom/laundry-pile thatyou are not alone! I say to hell with perfection and the careful disguising of reality in the blog. I say to hell with isolation and the negative psychological effects of aspiring constantly towards unattainable standards of domestic perfection.

A friend of mine who has a lengthy and horrific commute daily, who rises at 5am every morning to get into work, who is home by 7pm on a good day, who sews, knits, blogs etc. on TOP of this job and commute was recently, in spite of this extreme industriousness, ashamed of her untidy home when I last saw her. I found myself exclaiming that I love her messy pots, her pan full of mould and her disarrayed knitting projects covering every surface. I love them because they signify that my friend does not come into the house after a long day of work and immediately subject herself to tiring housework. I love the mess because it is the result of my friend choosing to do stuff that is pleasurable to her, rather than feeling obliged to perform tasks that are not fun during the small amount of free time available to her. When I look at the mess I see all the other stuff my friend has been doing with her time; activities that aren't cleaning and cooking and tidying and sweeping. Because let's face it, we could spend our entire lives cleaning! And why should we?! Enough of the oppressive idea that one is less of a woman somehow if one's house is not spotless. Bring on the mess. We know it always gets tidied away (if badly and hurriedly) at some point.

So here's my side of the bed - and this is how it always is apart form brief spates of tidiness when I feel guilty or whatever. There are manky hankies next to the bed and everything.

And Clare's side. This happens naturally....

And a quickie pic of one of the many things I am doing instead of tidying. This is the cablenet sock from Knitty (have you seen the new Spring one? I love the Salto sock! And the Laminaria Shawl (makes me want to dye yarn just that green),  and the Lace Ribbon Scarf. The feature articles seem pretty good, too!) Anyway - the cablenet socks - started for Mum's birthday January 2007, finishe done in time was too short - and now I've finished that one! You see it here (with the benefit of free, added mess, lucky you!) practically nearly almost done, but it is now done indeed.

It is actually rather lovely!

The big boxes you can see in the back of this picture are full of STUFF sent from Birmingham in January, and shipped via several long rests at the shipping company and then here - landed on 12th feb, got through customs and AQIS by 7th March and arrived here on the 11th. Extraordinary.

We are both very happy to be reunited with our stashes - mine is yarn and knitting books, C's is work books and KITES (and bike tyres and spare wheels, three more water bottles etc etc). Suddenly mine feels entirely fine! Perhaps I'll reintroduce you to it over the next few weeks as I pick back up on various projects started and planned.

Replies, yarn

This is the Glacier LAke and Cygnus the swan. I've just spent several hours doing what I almost NEVER do, starting, unpicking and restarting a sock with the Glacier Lake (after giving myself backache winding it from my knees onto a loo roll while awkwardly reading my blogroll). I cast one 70 stitches on 2.5mm needles, though I usually use fewer stitches and 2.25mm needles. Couldn't remember my favourite tubular cast-on (and of course have no books), so just did a backward loop. That was loose enough, but I felt the whole thing was knit too loosely, and it was really pooling for me. I took the chance to try various stitch patterns - I know I want something I can knit and chat, so simple, but I'm against stocking stitch socks (not necessarily for rational reasons!) I tried Bex's GliB socks and liked the pattern, but not sure it and the yarn go well together; then tried this Nine-to-five pattern - needs plain yarn.

Then I went online, to Ysolda's blog where she has a great video of a different method of tubular cast-on. I obviously was so stressed about doing it right, it was really tight on 2.25mm! I shall try again (casting on on larger needles) and try the Mad Colour Weave socks, I think.

Anyway, Hi Kathryn, Jo and Ruth, good to see you here, glad you like Josephine, I do too. Yep, Jo, the list is long and utterly unrealistic, you know me. I care not a jot, cos I do it for fun! (And of course I have a secret hope that I will get all these things done...). Ruth - I have enjoyed the fiesta socks so far very much (oh, yes, they're not finished either and are in transit) - and I fancy those Herringbone ones from Knitty too. 

I'll stop wittering on like someone who hasn't talked to anyone for 24 hours now, shall I?

(Company tonight, though - out for  a meal at the Universal restaurant - for the Friends of Dorothy (ha, ha) lunar night do. Christine Manfield's new restaurant - she had East @ West in London, winner of many awards, so my expectations are high!)

Josephine's done (hello again!)

So, I've finished Josephine, and all the details are Ravel'd. It was quite an easy knit, really, and I'm pleased with it. It is growing, as expected, and the only hope is that it grows no more than I allowed for (ok after 1 day's wear, fingers well and truly crossed).

The Sisters who indulged us as part of a history of Queer Sydney yesterday were happy to be pictured with old Josie, too...

I suppose it might be an idea to write here about my knitting plans, though they are being somewhat kiboshed at the moment by the non-arrival of all our shipped stuff. I'm assured it arrived in Sydney on 12th February, and we were warned it would be 2-3 weeks till it would be delivered to us, but - well, I have to admit to having bought some yarn in the meantime. Two balls of reduced something-or-other superwash heavy DK/aran from Tapestrycraft to make my Ellie, pictured here armless and one-legged, reclining on the deck. Not sure what came over me, I'm usually pretty much agin the cutesy-pie stuffed toy thing - but I suppose Ysolda managed a not-too cute but rather appealing elephant with her Elijah pattern, and the grey/brownness helps too! 

Not sure who'll get him...

I've also accidentally bought some organic wool in dark sheep colour from Ecoyarns, a site I'd stalked before coming here. I've always wanted a black sheep coloured jumper, and this is  going to be it! I think it'll be a combo of Knit in Chunks and Silver Belle; that is, the construction of KIC (but in DK as this yarn is, rather than aran) but with the cable around the yoke from SB, and probably the cables form there for the skirt/body part, too. We'll see! I do plan to leave it with just capped sleeves, as I think that'll be a good temperature for here in the winter, and home in the Spring/Autumn.

My Ravelry queue shows all sorts of plans, such as Intoxicating from No Sheep for You (awaiting yarn in shipping= AYIS); Fifi from French Girl Knits in Calmer (overdyed by me) (AYIS); Mamluke socks by Nancy Bush for Kate's 40th birthday present (AYIS); a very bright (coral, orange, tomato) Mermaid by Hanne Falkenberg (AYIS); a lightweight jumper in Kauni effektgarn EQ and (I think) Rowan Yorkshire Tweed 4ply, in black with coloured flecks - perhaps Venezia? Or a self-written pattern. Might use the Kauni against itself, alternatively, so rainbows in 2 directions (AYIS)....

Etc, etc. I have got a bit of sock-yarn here, from Knitivity (in Glacier Lake for Clare and Cygnus the Swan for me) and I do have all my needles (except those actually committed in the dratted shipping to the Twisted Float Shrug (one arm and a few more repeats of the pattern in the HUGE circle to go) and the Cablenet socks). Harrumph.