So much inspiration!

I've been watching series 1 of Kirstie's Homemade Home on Channel 4OD. Oh my goodness, I have got so many ideas buzzing around my head! I'm not sure that my local wool shop stocks enough wool for all the blankets, cushions and bunting that I'm going to make!

In the meantime, I'm knitting a cushion cover in Rowan DK which is taking me forever ... Perhaps that bunting will be a while yet.

Crafty people are the nicest people.

My friend and I had a lovely time at Ally Pally! I think I might have to book now for next year ... and start saving now!!

The journey there was so smooth that I would swear that we were in The Truman Show! Every train and bus was merely waiting for our arrival before they set off. The show began when we arrived (naturellement)!

I went there in the hopes of getting some inspiration for knitting, as well as for sewing, and I wasn't at all disappointed. There were so many lovely wools and so many gorgeous fabrics! I bought a couple of sewing magazines and got goody bags, which my daughter was thrilled with! I also bought some more sock wool (still working on my first pair of socks!), some recycled sari silk spun into a yarn and a couple of lengths of cotton fabric to play around with. I chatted to lots of very nice people who knew lots more about sewing and knitting than me, but were very patient with me.

Highlights of the day:

• Spending time with my bezzie mate was lovely!! (I have to say this, in case she reads this!).
• Rag rugging workshop was cool. I want a bodger!
• Touching lots of yummy wool.
• Getting home and showing off my haul to my excited daughter and endlessly patient hubby.

Low points:

• Man who got me to touch possum pelt before I remembered that 'pelt' means 'it died.'
• French knitting (so-called) teacher who made us feel very awkward when we arrived a little late, having got the start time wrong.
• Rude people on the train home who thought that very small children should have their own seats on a crowded train, and 'Ra girls' who gave fake apologies but didn't give me their seat.

Knitting and Stitching Show

I have been patiently waiting for this week for months! Finally, this Friday, I'm off to Ally Pally to the Knitting and Stitching show! Squeeeeal!

I've saved my pennies, bought my Onya bag to carry my wool in, planned what I'm wearing. I just need to make my packup then I'm ready!!

Balls!

It was my turn to bring home the balls that we've been knitting, in my knitting class, and photograph them as part of a collaborative project. The photos will all be exhibited together at Dragon Hall in Norwich.

Woolly nice card!

My bezzie mate sent me this really cool card! It made a very average day so much nicer! Sometimes I feel that my new-found hobby is a bit trivial in the scheme of things, so it's really nice to know that my pal understands.

Daisy Daisy

This is my daisy, fresh out of the washing machine.

I used the chunky filz-it wool to make this,

so it's turned out quite big, but I'm hoping that it

will look nice sewn onto the front of a cushion.

My brain is filled with crochet.

These are the things that I know now, but didn't know last week:

1) I now know what a turning stitch is! Most of the books say to make a foundation chain, which is easy, then tell you to make a 'turning chain' expecting beginners to intuitively know what this means! It took hours for the penny to drop and to realise that this was just another chain stitch. Grr, wasted hours!

2) I love that crochet language sounds like lines from Macbeth:

'Double, Double treble.
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.'

3) There are two methods for crocheting. By inserting the hook under both threads on a stitch, or by inserting the hook under just one thread. Only one book mentioned that there were two methods, leaving me utterly confused.

4) Apparently you can get a row counter phone app for your phone now! See: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/1-2-3-knit/id375019165?mt=8 . I don't have an iPhone though. Perhaps I could knit myself one??!

5) It's really hard to learn crochet by yourself. Sue, my knitting tutor at Dragon Hall, taught me more in half an hour than I'd managed to teach myself over the course of a day.

What I still don't know:
1 - 99) I am at that stage where I don't really know what I don't know, but suspect that my lack of knowledge is immense!!

100) I don't know why I seem to lose one more stitch on every row that I crochet. I can therefore make triangles, but not squares at the moment...

Little hook, big problem.

Today is the day when I am determined to beat a problem which has been niggling me for weeks. Today I WILL learn to crochet! Previous attempts, based on many Youtube videos, resulted variously in a hook filled with stitches, a mat of knots and a ball. Today I am armed with a pile of library books with 'beginner' and 'crochet' in the titles.

Wish me luck, I'm going in!

Knitting Yarns

I wrote this poem a few months ago. I'm not usually a poem writer, but this one just seemed to pour out quite easily. Maybe too easily! Maybe it's really bad! I'm sharing it here as it expresses how I feel when I'm knitting. The phrase 'knit my hearts' comes from Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra (Act 2 Scene 2). I liked the phrase so much that I decided to use the line for my blog title.

Knitting Yarns

Cast on the words

one at a time,

which will make

my first sentence,

slip stitch, first stitch,

loop on the thumb,

needle through and pull,

second stitch made,

continue.

Thirty words frantically looped together, intertwined.

Knit the first row, knit, purl, knit, purl, knit, purl. Frenetic.

Second row, wrong side.

Gripping the needles in

anxious hands.

Tension is too tight.

Each stitch is

an angry thought,

a missed chance,

what I wish I had said.

Regrets placed side by side to view.

But then the rhythmic

click

click

clicking

calms me.

My thoughts start to slow as

my hands take up a gentler pace.

Third row, right side completed.

Repeat rows one to three.

Each row becomes a flowing thought.

Wool runs through my fingers.

Tranquil now, I knit happy thoughts

into every stitch.

My joyful stories thread together.

I knit my yarns to create an unslipping whole.

Knit my hearts.

Knit my worries.

Knit my dreams.

Every stitch dropped, a lesson learned.

Pick it up. Continue.

One square at a time...

I knitted the Inevitable First Scarf when I was about 10 years old. I was enamoured with Dr Who (Tom Baker) and set about moulding my own reticent father into Dr Who's be-scarfed clone. Sadly I became bored, then ran out of wool and lacked the enthusiasm to spend my pocket money on more wool. So, this is the sad tale of why I never got the father I dreamed of. If only I had knitted with more tenacity!

I'll now fast forward thirty years (baby #1, get married, baby#2, new house x 12) and take a brief, yet painful, tumble down the stairs and break a leg. I have yarn in one hand, a needle in the other and a book about knitting squares to make throws by Debbie Abrahams on my lap. I cannot remember how to cast on. I'm tired and perhaps a little doped up on painkillers. I probably sigh at this point, but then I just start fiddling about with the wool and needles and before I know it I'm casting on! The excitement! I'm a teacher and I'm always going on about 'kinaesthetic memory' to students, but this was the first time that I really felt that clumsy ol' me had such a thing! I act as if I can knit and I can.

By the end of the afternoon I have my first completed (slightly irregular) square and I feel that I have achieved something.

My blanket is now growing one square at a time. It might take years to get the whole blanket finished, by which point my bones will have long-since healed, but I'm happy knitting my squares. With the help of my friend I have also advanced onto cupcakes!! :-)