thumb gusset

How to spiral

Jill asked about the stashbuster spirals and this is my explanation, with grateful thanks to the originator of the pattern, Hipknits.

You divide your sock stitches into 3 (for three colours, as written in the linked pattern) or however many you want. I'm using 4.

I'm working cuff down because I don't like toe up.

Do your rib as usual. Work one round plain. Knit one quarter of the stitches in your first colour (i.e. a needle's worth but I delayed the join a few stitches past the end of the needle to make a tighter join). Drop that colour and take up the second colour. DON'T TWIST THE YARNS - this was my mistake to start with. Knit a quarter of the stitches as before. Then with the third colour. When you come to the fourth colour knit TWO quarters, to bring you to the hanging end of your first colour. Keep doing this and you'll find that it's obvious when to change yarns. You do get a slight ridge, but there's no colour jog.

The part where you knit two quarters in the same colour should be centred over the back of the heel, so when you are ready you can do a short row heel using the same colour as the rib or another colour if you like.

It's easier than it looks in words!

Stashbuster spirals

I've been wanting to try the Stashbuster spirals socks for ages. Since I've nearly finished a pair of socks for the Economist I couldn't resist getting started on the SS socks last night. I usually have a pair of socks on the go, so they don't really count as projects...

The fawn is some German plain sock wool that I bought for heels and toes, then I'm using some Trekking XXL, Lorna's Laces and Mountain Colors Bearfoot. Here's a closeup (a bit washed out in colour):

This is very addictive knitting, because you just have to knit to the next colour! I've been quite stimulated by the way the colours are turning out and would like to use the same colours in some fair isle. It's fun seeing how the handpainted yarns subtly change the colour combinations as you go along.

Feeling a bit gloomy today. My mother (88) had another fall last night. She wasn't hurt - she tends to get overtired and sink to the floor rather than actually tumbling over. She asked me to visit her today and I have said no because my brother was due to visit her anyway. Now feeling a bit mean about it, so I'll go tomorrow and get her a decent lunch. This is a difficult stage of life with her needs and my family's needs pushing in on me. I'm not cut out to be a carer!

You wouldn't believe how much

time I have spent on this glove:

Since our friends left on Saturday morning I have started and restarted the pattern. I neglected people, animals and washing (clothes, not me!) and got quite hunched and stiff over it. Then suddenly yesterday afternoon it all fell into place and I was away. I'm not doing a gusset because I had spent so long on the thing already and couldn't get my brain to start working out how to fit one in. I don't really approve of gloves without thumb gussets, but the glove is reasonably wide and should fit someone with a normal or narrow palm.

It surprised me that it was more tricky trying to make a pleasing arrangement of colours and patterns using border patterns than it was with stars. I was going to use several different patterns but in the end was content with repeats. The colours are a little brighter in real life - it's a very dull morning here in London and difficult to get a good shot.

I'm off work this week and am hoping to get to Stash on Wednesday to see the knitters of Putney and am then planning to be at Liberty's on Thursday. So I should be able to catch up with people and all the delicious projects they're working on!

progress and plans

I've finished a pair of children's gloves for my craft stall (except for ends of course):

I deliberately kept the bands of colour quite simple. The light green is possibly too bright, but overall they're nice little gloves.

Now I'm at the delightful stage of looking at pattern books and yarn and trying to decide what to do for the next pair. I'm going to swatch these colours, hoping for a misty blue effect. Rather than a star I'm going to do three border patterns. I think I may do corrugated ribbing this time. Maybe fingerless? We'll see!

Total so far:

2 pairs child's striped mittens
1 pair nearly finished ditto
1 pair knitted but not finished adult fair isle gloves
1 pair ditto for child

Mounds of mittens

Jill sent me a link to a story about mittens.

Follow the link to read about the Latvian mittens being knit for the NATO Summit in Riga next month: Riga Summit

Worn out but still rocking

This has been a busy week and the whole family is stumbling through today and then - half-term (two weeks!). I'll be taking annual leave for the whole of half-term, which of course does mean my two days in the office this week were really packed. Not a great deal of knitting has taken place, therefore, but I did finish the fair isle gloves last weekend (ends not yet darned in though) and started a smaller pair with a less complicated design.

Today is number one son's 17th birthday. He was born on Friday the 13th and it quite often seems to be a Friday on his birthday. He was very indecisive about what he would like for his birthday, but finally decided he'd like to keep some dosh in reserve for an electric guitar later (he's a cautious soul). So, after a very enjoyable visit to Ally Pally yesterday (more on that anon) I trekked to the West End to find him a cool messenger bag. That seems to have gone down well (phew!). Of course, since I was so near Liberty's I went to the knitting group for a sit-down. Lots of new people and visitors, which was great. I'm at home most of the day today, so I'll bake a cake as a surprise for when he gets back from school. Next week he does his work experience at Peter Jones (department store in London) - he's growing up!

Alexandra Palace (aka Ally Pally)
It's a great show. Go if you can! Is that enough said? Well, for anyone who likes the detail:

I went with a friend who is a stitcher, so perhaps it's not surprising that I bought two small stitching kits and only one skein of knitting yarn!

I really liked the Euro Japan Links stand and bought from them a little beginner's Sashiko Sampler kit (I adore the little packet of needles!) and a kit to make a Furoshiki pin cushion using kimono fabric.

My friend and I went methodically up and down all the aisles, so I really think we saw everything, but I didn't browse as extensively as I might have done on my own, so I'm plotting to go on Sunday afternoon to help in the Knit and Relax area.

The skein I bought is sock yarn from Cherry Tree Hill.

New at the show was Catalina with wonderfully soft alpaca and alpaca blends with cotton or silk. I think I'll go back and explore them further. Also new were partly recycled yarns by Annie Sherbourne. I think I'll reserve judgement on them - they seemed a bit hard. It was interesting to see the new Sirdar range, Sublime. (Did anyone else think 'Debbie Bliss' when they saw them?)

I was a tiny bit disappointed not to be able to buy single skeins at Jamieson's, but they said I could ring up the factory and have them sent by free postage. I want to add to my range of colours for fair isle gloves! I bought their latest Simply Shetland book (no. 3) and really like the jacket at the end:

It is similar to my present winter coat which I've had for three years (and intend to have for very many more - I love it) and I know that's a good look on me.

Sorry - a very garrulous post covering bits of this and that. If I blogged more regularly...

craft tat

Well I went to the craft show at Sandown. There was very little there that I would actually call 'craft'. I don't count stickers, glitter and itty bitty sticky bits and bobs. Never mind, there was a fairly good book stall and I couldn't resist Nancy Bush's  Knitting Vintage Socks.

Craft to me is taking raw materials (or nearly raw, e.g. yarn, fabric, wood, leather) and making something useful and beautiful (well we try!). Today I went to the London Craft Fair, which used to be the Chelsea Craft Fair but is now called Origin and is on at Somerset House this week and next (not next Monday). I highly recommend it for inspiration and general feel-good factor. There were some interesting textile designers, including knitwear designers, and lots of other lovely things.

Lubna Chowdhray makes dazzling tiles and her studio is less than a couple of miles from me. I've been planning to redo the splashback behind the wash basin, so I'm going to pay her a visit.

I loved the furniture made by Adrian McCurdy. He had three benches all made from planks cleft from the same oak tree. The slight undulations and some very delicate carving were really stunning (price was, too).

There was a lovely stall of knitted accessories and animals from Orkney: Tait and Style. Their website doesn't really illustrate what was on show. They had some fun things made out of fair isle knitting (I'm afraid I'm going to pinch a couple of their ideas for my infamous craft stall).

I can't remember whose stall it was that had the softest felted ruffly scarves you could imagine. They were like thistledown.

I noticed that circles seem to be a really popular motif in just about all the crafts represented: multi-coloured and textured  textiles inspired by bubble wrap, bobbles [not pom poms, though]  on knitted hats, the tiles, and so on. I suppose dots and circles are quite fashionable at the moment. Overall the colours and textures were gorgeous.

Progress: nearly finished the fair isle gloves and am itching to do another pair in different colours. Even knitted a few rows on my cardigan! Have a plan to knit a gypsy caravan tea cosy like the one in Liberty's.