thumb gusset

Result

Well the Christmas Fair was a great success overall. We raised £1,800 and more will come in gradually. My 'craft' stall was extended to 'crafts and gifts' and we included unwanted and unused gifty things e.g. coffee maker, set of plates, etc. (no toiletries - they went elsewhere). A friend brought along loads of tapestry wools, canvases and three frames, plus knitting patterns and buttons. She had also done a lot of knitting. We thought it made sense for her to have an offshoot table for those things and we would stick to the more gifty things and Christmassy crafts (e.g. cards). Between us we made £200.30 and are hoping for about £15 from a raffle of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (beautifully knitted by another lady at church).

Personally, I sold the grey and purple gloves and two pairs of mittens. I stuck out for decent prices, whereas my colleague was selling very well knitted hats, gloves and scarves for peanuts. I can't see the point of buying stuff and then selling it on at no profit. You might as well just give the cost of the wool to the cause. Some herbs I had put up in packets and gift wrapped didn't sell at all!

I pulled a bit of a fast one on a friend who had seen the grey gloves in the making and said she wanted them. She thought I was selling them for £10, but after talking to Liberty knitters I decided to ask £15! She paid up with a good grace, and as she is giving them away have decided to knit her a pair. I think I'll go for more autumnal colours rather than a straight repeat.

So thank you for your good wishes and encouragement. I am enjoying the release from a deadline and will soon be back on some unfinished projects.

'Twas the night before...

... the Christmas Fair,
and all the knitting was done.
Each glove or mitten found its pair
And looked forward to feasting and fun!

Well, I hope it'll be fun tomorrow and I hope we raise lots of money for our ailing building.

If anyone is in the vicinity of West Norwood (SE27) tomorrow, the fair is at St Luke's church, at the bottom of Knights Hill, from 11 to 3.30. Updated to add: I have been given lots of vintage knitting pattern leaflets to sell on my stall. Also some embroidery frames, canvases and tapestry yarns. There will also be hot food.

I've also finished the Lana Grossa socks for the Economist (and he put them on straight away!). The feet aren't really so huge - it's the angle of the camera! I used 2.5 mm needles and this means the fabric is softer and floppier than I usually make.

So I'm now knitting some for myself in Fleece Artist merino, in the Cosmic Dawn colourway. I'm loving the way the colours are falling. No pooling obvious yet. I'm knitting them on 2mm needles because the yarn seems quite thin, so they're going to be quite sturdy.

Swapsies?

I have ended up with two copies of the autumn 06 Interweave Knits, one still in its plastic wrapping. Would anyone like to do a swap for something knitting-related to the value of £6 approx?

At my school when we wanted to give something away (or get rid of it) we would shout out 'Quiz?' and the first to say 'Ego!' would get it. If it was felt to be something undesirable the answer would be 'Veins'. I now presume that 'Quiz' is really the Latin quis, meaning 'who'. Ego means 'I'. I have no idea what the origin of 'veins' could be.

Quiz?

Thank you

Thank you to those who commented and sent me kind thoughts and good wishes for my mother. She is much better, though still imobile. There is talk now of moving her on to a rehabilitation unit. I really appreciated all your messages.

It's difficult with a blog to know when to say what's really on your mind and when to skate over the surface. In this case I couldn't think or write about anything else and I wanted to express myself in writing. I'm not always good at saying hard things without getting all weepy, which can be a pain! Anyway, it was probably too much information for some people and I hope normal knitting blogging will return soon.

So annoying: husband's sister gave him for his birthday the book I have bought him for Christmas! Shows it's appropriate I suppose.

14 November

Hope this won't come across as maudlin. Exactly eleven years ago yesterday I said goodbye to my father in hospital. He died the next day, the 14th. This also happens to be my husband's birthday. That year I completely forgot it was his birthday until a couple of days later.

Yesterday I had to arrange for my mother to go into hospital because she had suddenly deteriorated and could no longer cope. It is of course my husband's birthday again today. I determined not to forget this time! But I did forget to pack the boys' lunches (they'll have to buy chocolate). I suppose there's only so much the brain can hold at times like these!

Knitting socks is very soothing when you are waiting for phone calls to be returned and can't settle to anything else.

Also, of course, today is the Prince of Wales's birthday, which means that the National Anthem is played on the radio, which my husband always takes as a personal compliment!

Where to get Kauni yarn

Thank you for the kind comments on the scarf. A couple of people asked where I got it. I ordered from a German online retailer called Wollsucht. From the home page click on 'Handstrickgarn' in the left-hand list of links. It's easy to find the yarns from there. Also note that they have a good sock wool collection ('Sockengarn').

The ordering process is not straightforward if you don't speak German (like me) but if you get stuck you can email them at the address given on the home page and correspond in English! The service was very fast. Payment is in euros through Paypal.

I hope that if you knit something in this yarn you will tell us all about it. I would be interested to know if it felts well. That could be fun!

FO! (nearly)

I've finished knitting the Kauni [updated to correct spelling!] rainbow scarf. I enjoyed every minute of knitting with this colourful yarn. I doubled it by winding two balls off from the large skein. More by luck than judgement the colour changes lined up pretty well, although I did have to nip out a few feet here and there from the slightly larger ball. I'm so pleased that the ends are a mirror image (so to speak):

Here's the rest of it:

And here it is looking like a giant stick of rock or maybe an arty cushion:

The yarn is a heathered two-ply with very gradual colour changes spun into the yarn, not handpainted. Rather like Noro in that respect (and also in the  inclusion of bits of vegetation!). I'm off now to sew in the ends and give it a bubble bath. Oh, yes, I though it would be a short scarf, but it measures 83"!

The sky tonight (updated)

I have a bit of a thing about night skies. I'd love to live somewhere where there was no glare from street lights so that I could see the stars clearly. Tonight the moon looked particularly beautiful. I could see a complete spectrum of colour in rings around the moon - they're rather like a rainbow but caused by ice crystals far up refracting the moonlight. I made all the family go out and look at it. I hope some of you saw it! (Apologies for this rather poor photo, but at least it shows how bright the moon is tonight.)

Updated 7 November: I've discovered that what I saw was a lunar corona.

This is a much better picture of what I saw.

Thank you!

Thank you for your very kind comments. I'm just amused that the post on my co-ordinated wardrobe (ha ha) has prompted so many comments. I have the most scatty (and ratty) collection of ill-matched clothes. Mainly because I buy what fits when I see it. In theory I do stick to autumn colours, but the shops and current fashion colour diktat don't always oblige.

I've wound the Kaumi yarn and it wasn't tangled at all. The colour sequence repeated itself so I made two matching balls and am using the yarn double to knit a quick scarf. The colours melt into each other very subtly and it's great fun. I'm using the Yarn Harlot's reversible scarf stitch (scroll down to 12 October). Funnily enough, Jill suggested this and I was already about 18 inches into it. Great minds think alike. I hope to have photos soon.

I really enjoyed a visit to Stash Yarns in Putney on Saturday. The excuse was that Louisa Harding was visiting to sign books and show samples. It was good to see all her books and some designs made up. It was even more fun having an afternoon knit with good chums. Nic was working in the shop that day and she showed me a brilliant figure of eight cast-on (much better than the version I had used before) and started me off knitting with the magic loop method. More on that and I why I want to do it another time.

This autumn we are wearing...

orange!

The jacket is an acrylic boucle TKMaxx bargain and I love it - so soft and cosy! In a moment of inspiration I realised the Noro scarf and Shetland mitts would co-ordinate well. I knitted the scarf a couple of years ago and I get more compliments for it than for anything. I used the multidirectional scarf pattern. Putting these items together has made me a bit more interested in my wardrobe and has got me thinking about knitting things that actually go together!

To that end I have been pondering what scarf to knit to go with my winter coat. It's a dark but not navy blue, and not a entirely solid colour. I remembered some Kaumi effectgarn that I bought online a little while ago after seeing some stunning things made with it on someone's blog (a German one, I think). Anyway, here's the skein:

If you look closely there is some blue there. It's going to be fun winding this - there's 200g there on a HUGE skein (2 metres I bet) and some interesting looking tangles:

This is quite a fine yarn, so I'm thinking of quickish ways of using it for a scarf. It's a little bit rustic - nice sheepy smell! - but I think it'll be quite soft when it's washed. I expect it would felt well.

Other news: I have made progress on the stashbuster sprial socks and the latest fair isle gloves, but pictures can wait for another day.