This week's classes

On Tuesday, I went to my first ever ballet class.  I had worked through half of a ballet dvd before which was just as well as the teacher assumed some prior knowledge. I worked through the first part of the class feeling pretty smug. It was by the bar (with our backs to the mirror) so I couldn't see what any of us looked like.  I kept up reasonably well until we did one exercise very quickly. My toes are very short and I'm not very coordinated but anyway, it was fine.  Then we did some dancing which I struggled with and after that the real killer was practising leaping.  It threw me straight back to rubbish dance lessons in secondary school crossed with a comment likening me to a hippo one time.  I felt quite upset after the lesson - dumpy and ashamed instead of energised and graceful.  I had a little cry at home and read some knitting patterns to cheer me up which did help.  I was pretty bemused by my negative reaction and gave myself a stern talking to about it being my first lesson, it's good for me, I'll improve etc etc.  So I'll try again next week and see how that feels.

Japanese this week, and last week, was great.  I was thinking of giving up altogether as we'd had some very slow, dull, frustrating lessons, but we're learning new things every week now.  I need to do some homework as some of the vocabulary I'd learned before xmas has slipped out of my brain.  I don't think it will take long to revise it. I'm feeling much more positive about the lessons now, whereas I had been dreading them.  I cleared up a situation with another student too which was difficult but now I can relax a bit more when I'm there.

I've submitted a pattern for consideration for Let's Knit's June issue so I'm hoping it will have a positive reaction.  It was using DyeForYarn Merino/Silk sock yarn and I'm using the leftovers to make my mum a phone cosy.  The pattern is here.

Nearly there

After triumphantly finishing the first sock, I couldn't really understnad why the second one (the one that was originally finished first but was too big) had ten more stitches than the other.

After a while I realised I had started decreasing further up the foot so had to unravel a few more inches. It now matches the first and I'm just waiting to see my mum so she can confirm it fits before I graft the toe.

I had a lovely weekend - I saw Blondie at a festival, had my feet nibbled by fish and went to the beach with my friend. Now I'm catching up on Desperate Housewives and contemplating doing something more useful. Naaaaah.

Anyone for tennis?

I had a lovely afternoon watching the tennis today. It was far more exciting than I anticipated. First we saw the Williams sisters lose in the doubles, then Laura Robson pull back in the second set to win in the girls singles, then flicked over to see Federer two sets down, watched him lose then flicked back over to see Nadal had lost a set. If that wasn't enough, Murray dropped his first set and played an unconvincing second but then woke up in the tie break and played well to win. Phew.
Amongst that, I did manage to finish the first of my Mum's birthday socks. I only had to redo the toe so it really didn't take long and I even grafted it up and it fits, hooray. I also had strawberries and cream.


Here's the front of the christening gown. I don't know why it's upside down.

I dug this little glove out of my drawer to take to knitting group last night. More on that another time.

FO: Mum's socks

Whoa, there!

I am learning to drive and made it up to 3rd gear today!!!! I felt like I was completely out of control and racing round brands hatch...at a top speed of 20mph!!!!!!!!!

Ok, calm down. Breathe.


I am knitting all sorts of things. The socks above are for my mum. They are the same pattern as the ones I made for Chris which I thought I might like to sell. I've written in a few more sizes and am testing a size for my mum. The thing is, I'm concerned that as they are knitted on 2mm needles and have approximately 6000 stitches, people won't be interested. So I ignored them for a while and obviously they didn't just knit themselves so my mum still doesn't have her socks and I still don't have a pattern to sell. Is it wrong to want to sell patterns? Well, anyway, I took them with me to the new knitting group I have been attending for a while, KniTWells. I wonder if they have a clever button or something I can put on my blog. I didn't knit them but my sister did manage to tread on them so now, as usual, I am down to four needles. You can't fight fate.

For some reason, I decided to remove as many spiders from my house as possible. I think it was prompted by finding a massive one in my kitchen sink, which sort of spoiled my plans for a quiet breakfast in bed on Saturday morning. I wish I hadn't looked, beacuase I found a scene straight from charlotte's Web

All the little dots are little spiders and there is a big spider in the bottom right corner. Not a great photo, sure, but there are many many many spiders there. I managed to get most of them out of the front door but there always seemed to be more on the ceiling - I wondered if the same ones were running back indoors after me.

Grumpy

Well, obviously I jinxed it by saying I would finish the shrug next as I then realised I hadn't decreased to match the initial increases and I would have to unravel it a bit and then figure out what I'd done and blah blah blah really couldn't face it. I'm also struggling with learning fair isle as a new skill and then I saw my bank statement and realised that I should get a job and frumph.

I cheered myself up by starting a new sock though. Pictures another day.

My birthday

It was my birthday last Friday. Here are my knitting related presents:


A multipack of Quills which are dpns made from milk. As you know, I've had a run of bad luck with breaking and losing dpns and then I tried using two circulars but it wasn't a hit. My big sister knew I fancied this set and I've tried them and really like them! I love Decorative Knitting and it gives me loads of inspiration. Knit Kimono was mentioned to me by a friend. I haven't had a chance to look at it much yet but I love Japan and there are pages of info on Kimonos and history which I will enjoy.




This isn't really a birthday present but a little while ago, Chris bought me an organiser and today my sister and I filled it with my stash of beads and ribbons. Um, I seem to have more than I realised.

For my birthday we went to a sealife centre and camping and a castle. It was my favourite birthday ever.










I'm a bit all over the place at the moment with knitting. I have several things that need finishing (okay, more than several) and keep wanting to start more so I'm going to focus on finishing things over the next few days and then working on things to earn me some money. I've made a plan for a few projects to try submitting to magazines and might try selling some on Ravelry. I've even opened a paypal account but I don't really understand how it all works. It is very interesting to try new things.

Tomorrow, I'm having a little birthday party with my mum and might make chocolate cornflake cakes (ingredietns: chocolate, cornflakes).

I had another run in with my mother

Now, I don't want you to think that this happens often but it seems to be increasingly related to knitting (see here for the previous episode). This time it revolved around a similar theme - me being frustrated at her lack of confidence in her knitting ability, her not being positive enough about something I was interested in.

My aunt is ill. I decided it would be a grand idea if we (me, my mum, my sisters and my dad and brother if they're interested) knitted her a blanket. My mum said that was fine if I organised it* so off I trotted full of enthusiasm and ideas. Probably a little too much enthusiasm. I sat down at the computer to look for yarn and then with my trusty stitch guide to look for stitch patterns. I sketched an idea for the layout of the blanket, picked all the stitches I liked the look of and thought looked fun to knit, went back to the computer to search for rough estimates of yarn requirements, drafted a plan on excel, coloured it in, ordered the yarn, changed the colours to what were in stock, scanned in the stitch patterns from the book, emailed everything to my mum and sisters and BLAM. Instant smack down from my mum.

I got quite huffy with her. It was all over the internet which probably contributed to me feeling huffy. The huffy feeling continued after we had stopped messaging so then I phoned my sister. My big sister, who I knew wouldn't indulge me but I hoped would sympathise. She was quite keen on the knitting and the stitch patterns but couldn't view them on her computer, it being old and doddery. She wasn't having any of my whinging and after a lovely chat and being told off for being over sensitive (Moi? Never!) I felt better and realised I too had some part to play in the situation and that my mother wasn't entirely at fault. In fact, perhaps I was more at fault than her.

I love stitch patterns. I love challenging myself with knitting. I get excited by lace and cables and entrelac and colourwork. I want to feel I'm stretching myself and I feel pleased at the end results. I fear not the knitting.

My mum loves to knit. She can knit bobbles and intarsia and jumpers and lace but mostly, she loves to knit. She doesn't constantly want to be taxed and I admit, neither do I. She doesn't desire to fight with cable needles to prove mastery of another stitch in the same way I do. So why do I keep trying to push her to be more like me? Shouldn't I let her find her own way? I feel like I'm encouraging her to feel more confident in her abilities but why is this important when she's having plenty of fun?

I also realise when she said I should organise the blanket* that I went too far. I didn't involve anyone else in the planning stages and then didn't explain myself when I emailed them. Organising it isn't the same as being a bully. Organising isn't an alternative to communicating. We're all going to talk about it at the weekend. I was ever so pleased when I received an email from my mum saying she had done some of her own stitch pattern research and had some ideas. I will let you all know how it pans out.

I ordered the yarn from Getknitted. They were very helpful and the next day I received this



containing this



11 hanks of Blue Sky Alpaca Dyed Cotton in Honeydew, Thistle, Shell, Orchid and Sky, and 2 balls of Rowan Calmer in Vintage. I have a long list of things I want to knit my Aunt including Shedir from Knitty. I've wanted to knit Shedir ever since I saw it, ever since I was challenged by the cables, ever since I heard of cabling without a cable needle, and ever since I heard of chemo caps and the realisation that I started knitting far too late to make one for my nan who died 18 months before that issue of Knitty was published.

This is the progree of Shedir



and here is the progress of the first panel of the blanket





See you all next week.

*My mum denies all knowledge of saying I had to organise the blanket but then that's mothers for you.

Things I am learning

Although I have dabbled in designing my own knitting work, as you can see from the sidebar, I've always felt terribly fraudulent. It's reasonable enough to make an egg cosy as eggs don't tend to vary much in size and the fit isn't crucial. However, when you get to designing for real life people, whether it's for babies or adults, it all gets a bit more important*. I decided I should invest my time more into knitting other people's patterns to learn more about knitting and shaping and fitting and all those tricky type things. Fortunately for me, I have lots of time on my hands and lots of knitting I want to get done. And even better, my friend Erssie happens to have plenty of work to give me. Which brings me to what I learnt at the weekend:

Lesson 1 When working for a friend, make sure you find out who knitted the jumper you are seaming.
Think twice before you send rude texts.
Or, What I Didn't Know About Rules.

Fortunately, I did think twice before I sent the grumpy text and then sent a fairly reasonable email mentioning the fact that all ball changes for a jumper had taken place in the middle of a row. But why? When everyone knows you change at the edge of a row. I got particularly narky because I was worried about making it look bad when I was weaving in ends. I am only a recent professional knitter and this being only one of the first of my jobs, I was particularly keen to make a good impression. I got a very thoughtful response from Erssie (Oy! I knitted it...). In this case, the seams had to be as minimally bulky as possible and changing balls at the edge of rows just didn't work. I felt very foolish and then very pleased. This is what I had hoped for - increasing my experience and understanding of knitting and being paid for the privilege.

Noblin Lesson:
Sometimes it is worth ignoring rules if they are constrictive and when breaking them gives you a better finish, isn't that what we are working towards? Rules for the sake of convention are pointless. This is the first project I've knitted where it was worth breaking this particular rule, and I admit that every other project I completed has benefited from having the ball changes at the edges. I'm not about to throw my rulebook out the window just yet but it reminded me that we are not slaves to the norm. Knitting is as much about creativity as any other art form, with masters to study and conventions to flout. So there, many lessons learned.

I finished Divas Don't Knit and it was lovely and there were no awkward sad bits where someone has a sudden terrible death. I do recommend it if you like that kind of thing.

Noblin sightings:


*Ysolda has just published a sizing guide to help here
How very kind!


HELLO, BEV!
I'm so glad you like the scarf and leaf patterns. I'll look into putting the leaf pattern up for you on the next post!

Happy birthday to me!

Hello everyone, it's lovely to be back. We flew home on May 26th and have spent the last month trying to catch up with people and begin to sort our lives out. I am reinventing myself as a professional knitter with the help of my friend Erssie, who has more knitting and dogs than she can shake a stick at.

One of the most exciting things about being back was being presented with the blanket my mum has been knitting for me since we left. Way back a year ago, she was saying she wished there were more patterns where you could just knit and didn't have to be fussed with shaping and counting. I had recently been caught up in the log cabin knitting craze as seen here and in Mason Dixon Knitting so I gave mum my copy and a few leftovers. She has been knitting for nearly 11 months on it, interspersed with purchasing longer needles and a Denise set (in pink).
It is so marvellous, I even lugged it back to sunny Slough in my backpack and use it all the time. Most of my professional knitting career has taken place snuggled up underneath it (what happened to the weather? central heating in June?). Okay, okay, it's a two person lap blanket so it's meant to be for sharing but I like it mostly for myself ;)

For my birthday yesterday, I requested not to have presents from most people but a few had already been to the shops. My sister bought me a lovely bag for my knickers as noone wants to see them flying all over the train as I struggle to heave out my packed lunch and knitting when travelling between families. My mum bought me a copy of Divas Don't Knit which I've already started and am enjoying between tidying up to hoover and do some blocking on the floor. It isn't as compelling as The Friday Night Knitting Club but without spoiling it I was in floods of tears at the end of TFNKC and I jolly well hope that won't be the case with DDK. On the other side, my inlaws bought me some smellies and candles which I will have to redistribute as I don't like burning money and I don't like synthetic chemicals. I really should say something to them but I am partly too shy and partly don't like to be ungrateful and partly like something to whinge about. Otherwise, they are lovely gifts. From the step-grandparents-in-law, I was given a lovely box of fairtrade chocs and an apology that it was the biggest box they could find. All in all, I was very spoilt. Marie made me an amazing chocolate cake and I even had an appletise at the pub.

The reason for no presents (and if you look back a year ago you'll see a rather different attitude): my husband and I are investigating alternative lifestyles, including not having a huge house full of junk, and he even has his own webpage now. It's all very embryonic but do take a look if you like. I will stick more to knitting here though so you'll have to look over there if you want to know more about our plans.

Things I have to tell you about:
knit shopping around the world including Azerbaijan, India, Japan (which I briefly mentioned earlier), NZ, USA
meeting up with an internet friend in real life and eating lots of chocs
travelling stories from everywhere including Switzerland, Azerbaijan, Dubai, India, Nepal, Thailand, Laos, the Philippines, Japan, NZ, Samoa, USA

Feel free to vote for your favourite topic.

So, what have you all been up to while I've been away?