Cariad

There are many regional variations of 'dear' the diminutive we use as shorthand for those we love - duck, lover (peculiarly Cornish that one) sweetie, honey, babe, hinny.  (I like hinny in particular , I think it is only used in the North East and must be pronounced with the appropriate accent).  In Welsh it's Cariad, and it was printed on the outside of our goodie bags at the weekend.  On the other side P3 .

It was 3pm on Friday afternoon and we had arrived in Wales for three days of knitting, conversation and love.  Love for knitting, yarn  and for each others knitting efforts - one 31 woman sample of the knitting sorority (and one man, as he said 'there's always one man')

It said in the publicity THERE WILL BE YARN.  And there was

I know we were given 300g of beautiful hand produced yarn (including one skein specially dyed for P3 by Claire at NiMu yarns)  in our goody bag but there was yarn for sale there too - in close up...

Dr Donegal from Countess Ablaze

Faery Wings from Fyberspates

There was also plenty of action at the swift and wool winder

What an amazing group of people.  One session was about what we made, each person bringing a finished object and telling its story.  So much wit and good humour, with tales of a sweater that became a cushion, another knitted during a dark time in someone's life and one that saved a marriage!  When @TreehouseTea brought a beautiful cardigan, the first she had made for herself in years, only to find she had made a mistake in the pattern high on the sleeve, Brenda - said 'Oh we can fix that'

Last year we fitted neatly into a little seating nook in the  garden for our group photo - it was a challenge this year

There's been a little natural population growth too - and one afternoon @KnitLikeUMeanIt sat with baby delicious on her knee knitting.

Brenda's class on how to make a sweater that really fits from a few measurements was magic. Amy showed us how to work with silk hankies, beginning here

via here

by way of here

and here

to make this (it's in half linen stitch, something I had never worked before)

The pattern suggested we made the strip into a cuff, decorated with buttons.  Well I have plenty of these

and made this

Feel the love?  Yes we did

xx

c

Knitty inspiration

I'm off to lovely Wales for P3 at the weekend.  I'm afraid the course has been booked up for ages, but I think it will happen again next year so if you are interested you can keep an eye out by joining the ravelry group.  P3 stands for Plug & Play Pembrokeshire and is the idea of two lovely women Amy Singer, Editor of Knitty.com and Brenda Dayne of Cast-On.  who will also be our teachers.  I had such a great time last year  learning how to design and knit lace, I had to go again.  This year its all about texture and in particular the textures that are used in knitting traditional British sweaters.

I've been checking my welcome letter...

Making sure I have all the kit I need (this is like the first day at school!)

And diverting to Rokka Sheek on my way home from work to replace my lost 3mm knit-pros and medium length cable.  And there, in my 'near work' LYS is where I strayed from the path of fiscal righteousness.  

I have just returned from holiday, as you know.  Now Greece is very expensive, despite, or is it because, of their present troubles.  Lovely but expensive, especially when I just have to bring home delicious Korres cosmetics and pretty jewellery made by local craftspeople.  As part of my post-holiday austerity measures, I promised myself I would not buy any more wool.  After all I know at the weekend there will be lovely surprises in the P3 goody bag and a small but perfectly formed yarn market on Sunday with irresistible yarn from NiMu, Blue Moon and The Purple Purl to mention but three, so I should be saving my pennies.  But I do so want to make something like this (not a pattern that is available anywhere I know.  The picture is from a retail site but I will just cast on and knit, how difficult will that be?) 

(c) oleana.no

And many of you will know how easy it is to loose all will power in the face of soft yarn in perfect colours and the old story of  'it was a bargain' at £2.99 a ball.  The perfect yarn for the job - don't you think?

Soft grey, cream, lettuce and dusty pink in 100% wool soft as soft.

Now... when shall I find time to make the shawl?

xx

c

Knitting in Wales

I'm just back from my first ever knitting course taught by stars of the knitting world Amy Singer and Brenda Dayne.

I thought travelling to Pembrokeshire for the weekend was a pretty big stretch from Hampshire but NEW HAMPSHIRE???  I met Laurie as we arrived at the run down railway halt nearest to the hotel.  It seemed to be in the middle of nowhere (except it did have a very very good yarn shop).  I was amazed when she told me she had come from Maine (not New Hampshire, but you know what I mean) , flying over just for the course.  She knew so much about our teachers I was ashamed to admit that a friend had suggested we go to the course and I knew no more than that.  In fact  nearly half the women who attended came from the USA, travelling miles to attend classes given by such well known and admired knitters.

And here they are in front of the lovely hotel in Pembrokeshire where we stayed and where we learned  the essentials of a beautiful lace shawl and a perfectly fitting sweater.

(You'll have to look here to see what they were photographing)

We had goody bags!

(With three hanks of super quality yarn but my third hank is already a work in progress)

We had our own yarn shop

(NiMu as well as Fiberspates)

And Show and Tell

But above all we had good teaching.  Amy Singer taught us about her brilliant tool for taking any lace pattern and adapting it to the shape of the garment you want to make.

We did lots of charting and swatching.  There was a much rubbing out of charts and ripping out of swatches till (with Brenda's and Amy's help) we got it right

Brenda taught how, with a few key measurements, a calculator and knowing the knitting tension (gauge) of the yarn we were using we could make the perfectly fitting sweater.

I have chosen some fabulous lace weight merino wool, cashmere and silk mix from NiMu for my sweater.  I can't begin that yet as I need plenty of time to get the basics right - probably emailing Brenda a few times till I feel confident to launch into the project but I'm all occasionally for delayed gratification


The surroundings were beautiful, the view from the Orangery where we worked was lovely (who says it always rains in Wales!)

the neighbours were curious but friendly

we even had time on Sunday evening to watch Downton Abbey together (I wonder what Lady Mary would make of such enthusiasm for knitting)

But most of all we knitted and talked about knitting, even while waiting for dinner to be served

Thank you Amy and Brenda for a really special time

xx

c