(Maybe) the last word on the subject

I'm still full of busy from the BIG Knit.  Two blankets fully completed, squares put together,

borders crocheted

and ends sewn in,

were delivered to the Hospice today.

And the ladies of our knitting group are working hard on sewing up another four!

And then just before leaving for the hospice the sun was shining I decided to photograph the blankets on the lawn.  As there was dew on the grass this meant I needed to lay out our old picnic blankets first.  And underneath the blankets in my dining room (now renamed the yarn room) was another bundle of 49 squares!

How amazing is that?  Seven blankets which will decorate the day room and individual bedrooms at the hospice and keep chilly toes warm.

What has also been so lovely is how many people who asked if we would organise another event.  So we are!  And there has been a little bit of re-branding.  I have updated the facebook page to explain that the BIG Knit Fundraiser will be an annual event in association with The Hospice but we shall also hold BIG Knit Gatherings from time to time to meet as a bigger group to knit, chat (and drink coffee and eat cake).  The first Gathering will be on 9 November at one of our local community halls, the details will appear on the Facebook page and Ravelry forum

If truth be told I am also keen to get back to my stash-busting project.  Not that blanket squares are not a good stash buster but I have this

and this...

waiting in the wings to make up into something glamorous (red) and warm (green/grey) that I am longing to get my needles into

xx

C

The BIG Knit BIG reveal

Gosh - over 75 knitters making nearly 400 squares, aiming to make a blanket in a day and we did it!!  

Cathie and Claire who did ALL the sewing up

More than that we have enough squares for 3 more blankets which the Basingstoke Knitterers and Natterers will be sewing up (well probably crocheting) in the next few weeks, with breaks to get on with our own knitting.  The blankets are for our local Hospice, St Michaels.   We collected money too but I can't tell you how mush as we haven't counted yet!

As we set up on Friday, transforming this neat but dull space

into something more knitterly and festive

with a banner,

bunting

wool chains

tubs of yarn

and needles

We were a little worried that we would not have enough people.  That was the least of our worries...

These ladies were busy planning and knitting by 10 O'clock.  And soon we were looking for more chairs!

We had a visit from the Mayor

and the Little Model

The atmosphere was lovely. Some people even met up with old friends or colleagues they had not seen for a while

Lots wore their favourite knitted items, 

I loved this scarf

Also spotted, flowery brooches and hair slides, cardigans and shrugs 

As the squares piled up

Cathie and Claire got out their crochet hooks

With all the coming and going, how did we keep count?  A book circulated for peoples contact details, we have 75 e-mail addresses. 

I-pad artist Sue Howe transformed photographs into beautiful portraits

We had requests to do this again and we will.  We are also thinking about other events that would bring our town's knitting community together.  So watch this space

And Facebook 

And Ravelry

If you belong to neither but would still like to be in the loop e mail me your contact details (my address is on the About Me page)

BIG thank you

Firstly to the knitters, obvious really but we couldn't do it without you.

Then Festival Place, for lending us the space and for all its lovely staff who helped us find tables and chairs, let us dress their penguin waste paper bins in scarves..

and were so hospitable on the day, checking we were all OK

We also had help from other people in the town. The manager at a nearby cafe (Ed's Easy Diner) very kindly lent us several chairs when we had people standing.    We were given coffees by Cafe Nero, Costa and Pure independent local bar.  And when the technical assistant (AKA my son Ed) had problems with the slide show of pictures by our artist in residence Sue Howe which we were showing on a big screen TV, the manager of our local Sony store came to the rescue.

Well, that's enough excitement for one month, I'm off to cast on a cardi

xx

c

mascots K1P1 and SSO,
hung around Festival Place with labels advertising the BBK

Little Things

I was thinking today, what does a dedicated knitter do when she (or he) begins to realise that the yarn stash really has extended beyond life expectancy?  For my part the substitute for yarn buying is yarn accessory buying, in particular, vintage accessories.  I was reminded of this when I joined in with a discussion on the Graffiti Grannys face book page about yarn organisers.  Actually the organiser they posted on their page prompted a lot of ridicule because as you will see the model appears to be knitting a crochet blanket with both knitting needles held in one hand - twice the magic!!

Anyway in the course of the discussion someone mentioned the Bakelite bee skeps that Patons sold in the 1950s.  The particular Granny on FB duty at the weekend had not heard of them so especially for the Grannys, here's mine...

Its quite small and clearly made for a time when yarn was wound into tidy little round balls

But it is a thing of true loveliness and in addition to the compartment that unscrews to fit the yarn, in the base there is also a needle gauge

 Not vintage but also a thing of beauty is my pottery yarn bowl, made for me specially by a potter friend of a friend.  This one is suitable for any size ball of yarn

I have found little vintagey things all over the place, beginning with my late mother's work basket where I found these tiny crochet hooks (the larger one is stamped 2 1/2 and the smaller 4 1/2)  They are so fine that I could crochet sewing cotton with them (if I ever had the time!)

the coin is a 5p piece

 And then there is this tiny pair of scissors, I have used these for snipping away fabric when embroidering broderie anglaise

Last night I was comfortably settled on the sofa and about to turn the heel of a sock.  I needed a pencil to make a note of the rows but really did not want to get up!! (lazy, I know).  What luck!  I remembered I had this row and stitch counter in the bottom of my bag, bought recently at a yarn fair

I can't remember where this tiny leather pouch came from

but inside the worn lining of cherry coloured silk it contains a penknife with three tiny blades and a mother-of-pearl handle

Now that I knit my own socks perhaps I shall darn them too using this darning mushroom (or perhaps not!)

I don't think buying little things like these will ever quite cure me of my yarn buying habit but they are treasures and I love how they connect me to previous generations of knitters.

xx

c

Wool gathering

In case anyone has missed it, Saturday 15 June will be the day of the Basingstoke BIG Knit!  You can find us on Ravelry, Face book, and Twitter .  In just two weeks there will be people all over Festival Place Basingstoke knitting.

Its part of World Wide Knitting In Public Week  At the BIG Knit we are planning to knit a blanket in a day and raise money for our local hospice, St Michael's.  We need lots of yarn and it's started to arrive from the generous knitters of the town

A bit of a jumble but I have begun sorting them out into colours

blues and greens

reds and pinks

 AND

yellows and creams

I'm beginning to see themes here.  It would be fab if we could make three blankets in these colours.  They are not going to be huge, lap rugs really so perhaps its doable...

If enough people turn up!

PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD

I also found some knitters treasure in amongst the bags.  If  you have an eagle eye you may have spotted it already.  Some lovely old (1950s or 1960s, I think) Patons 4 and 3 ply 80% wool in some great colours.

As a spin off from the BIG Knit we are thinking of making a really fabulous afghan for the hospice to auction or raffle at their winter fundraiser.  This yarn might just be the right stuff to use

What do you think?

xx

c

A New Book

A little while ago those very nice people at Quadrille sent me a copy of Debbie Bliss' new book Knits for You and Your Home

The book,which was published on March 28th, arrived several weeks ago; but if you have read any of my reviews in the past you will know that I like to try out a project before passing an opinion.  And what with the BBK and other knitting projects, although I chose what I wanted to make,  it took me a while to actually get it done.

I suppose it is no longer strictly necessary to make something each time I receive a book to review, particularly when it is one by Debbie Bliss.  Her books are always beautifully presented - a joy just to browse and the patterns well written and turn out just like the illustrations.

As always the book is full of things I would love to make, some projects are ideal for small amounts of stash yarn, for others you can get really extravagant and buy 9 balls of Party Angel (for a pretty pink shrug to wear over a floaty Summer dress).

The book is divided into four sections, Indulge, Cocoon, Pamper and Detox.  The big difference is that, unlike many project books, it really is for YOU as well as for your home.  There are some great original ideas, including one or two pretty things to wear and only a couple of cushions - I know I have said it before but, how many cushions does a home need?

I love the bath bag in the Pamper section

And the Hanging Pockets in Detox

I decided to make the keepsake box from Indulgence, modifying it slightly to make it into a picture frame.  My first problem, the frame I had in stock was day-glow green, no good at all with the soft colours I had chosen for the fairisle background

So it needed a lick of paint

The fairisle stocking stitch panel for the background turned out fine, though the usual curly tube needed some firm handling

Using some double sided sticky tape I fixed it in position to the back of the frame and used another tiny bit of tape to hold the picture in place as I reassembled the frame - Et Voila!!

A lovely book, I'm definitely going to make more of the things in Detox to organise my study

xx

c

Displacement activity

Very early on Tuesday mornings it is my habit to lie in bed just as it get light (sun rise, birds cheeping and all that) and consider what I might write about here.  It is a rare occasion when I plan much ahead, ideas usually come to me in that land between sleeping and waking on the day I write them up.  I always have some project or other on the go - new yarns to chat about or a discovery of a new technique.  But this morning nothing...  It's not that I haven't got something 'on the needles' or plans for a big project and I even have something that I have finished and is waiting to be sewn up,  Its just that I'm not yet ready to go public on these and I don't love the FO enough to rush to sew it up (does anyone else make things from time to time that they don't like?).

No it's simply that I am blocked.

Then listening as I do to Radio 4's Today Program with half an ear,I heard a debate on whether writers block really existed.  One person saying that writers were just being precious and self indulgent, if they had children and only limited hours in which to write they would just get on with it, like any other job.  The opposite view was put by a man who quoted Joseph Conrad who seemed to be in extremis with writers block 'and he was a father of children'.  To which the woman retorted 'I bet he never had to pick them up from playgroup'  - Touché

After listening to this and identifying more with the busy mother (even though the children are grown and two of the four have flown) and not a real writer but a blogger to boot I cannot allow myself to indulge in the fantasy of writers block.

So it boils down to the fact that I don't know what to write about, so instead of sitting down at my PC straight after breakfast I DID THE IRONING!!!

 Then I made soup and now I seem to have begun generally nattering!  Displacement activity?  I'm afraid so

The soup is very good - here is the recipe

1 litre of ham stock (Sunday dinner left overs in this case)
2 onions
2 large potatoes
1 large celeriac
chopped ham left overs
chopped parsley (as much as you like)

• Peel and roughly chop the onions, potatoes and celeriac and sweat in a little olive oil to which you have added a knob of butter
• Add half the stock and simmer till all the vegetables are cooked
• Put the vegetables through a mouli, sieve or liquidise
• Add the rest of the stock and adjust the seasoning
• Dilute with milk if too strongly flavoured and add the ham (don't reboil once you have added the ham or you will just get a stringy mess)

So what am I knitting at the moment?  It's color affection in the Countess Ablaze Donegal that I mentioned earlier.  Everyone says it looks nothing like the finished object until its blocked and I certainly hope so

The yarn is soft and delightful, I know the purply/blue will be more dominant once the shawl is finished with a two inch border in it but at the moment I have to admit it just looks like a load of baggy garter stitch!

xx

C