Category: knitting

I love Ravelry!

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For those not “in the know” (which is probably most of the world, given that Ravelry currently only has 41,000 members) Ravelry is an internet community site for knitters and crocheters. It’s still in beta testing so you can’t see much yet without signing up as a beta tester, although you will be able to browse the entire site without signing up once it goes live.

It’s difficult to describe Ravelry succinctly. I can list what it has: patterns database, yarn database, individual notebooks and project pages where users can post details of what they’re working on as well as finished items. There are also forums and a private messaging system. The big thing though is the feeling of community. Being able to look at what other people are working on, reading their comments on particular patterns or yarns and having them comment on your items is just great. It’s like having access to a huge knitting circle without having to move away from the computer.

It was actually people’s comments on my projects that sparked this post. One of Ravelry’s features is the ability to mark something as a ‘favourite’. I noticed today that two of my projects have been marked as favourites by people, one of them by two different people, and it made my day!

What’s even better is that those two projects are also favourites of mine. One was Steven’s Avast jumper, which I was really pleased with and which, since he wears it a lot, I guess he was really pleased with too! The other was my beaded napkin rings (a variation on the Venezia pattern from Knitty). These turned out really pretty, even though I omitted the final, fiddly step of turning them into actual rings. The ultimate compliment on these so far though has been a friend who, upon being told that they were hand-made, commented that he had assumed they were shop-bought and spent the rest of the evening peering at them intently. I can only assume he was looking for some method of telling that they were hand-made.

Pictures below, since I don’t often have an excuse to post pictures to my blog.

In other knitting news, Henry is now 57% done but feels like it’s slowing down again. I still believe I can finish it by Christmas though.

Avast napkin ring

Encyclopedia of Needlework

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One of the books I’ve been most proud of during my time so far with Distributed Proofreaders has been The Encyclopedia of Needlework. It really was a labour of love (and a little hate) over about a two year period.

It’s a 19th century text, which hasn’t been out of print (in English) since then. This is the English translation of the original French and there has been a German translation as well. The German version is planned to go through Distributed Proofreaders as well (if it hasn’t already started). The text covers most forms of needlework including knitting, crochet, macramé, lace, embroidery, tapestry and others. It gives details of tools, techniques and patterns and is heavily illustrated throughout (which is what made it so difficult to process).

I’ve already received comments from various people on how useful it will be and how pleased they are that it’s available but today I got a message from a friend about something completely unrelated that led me to take a look at her blog. I hadn’t been there for a while so had a little wander round and discovered that she’s actually working on a needlepoint lace project from the Encyclopedia! I spent so long working on these illustrations and thinking about how beautiful some of these pieces would look that I’m just unbelievably chuffed to discover that someone is actually using it to make something. I can’t wait to see the finished piece.

If you’re interested in other books like this, the crafts bookshelf on Project Gutenberg is a good place to start looking. There are lots of non-needlework crafts on there too; taxidermy, anyone?

On the home straight

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Henry has passed the psychologically all-important half-way mark! And this is in terms of pattern repeats, number of rows and quantity of yarn used so there can be absolutely no doubt that I really am more than half done. For the first time, I actually believe that I might get this finished for Christmas (she says, jinxing it so that now it won’t get done).

Being me, I am now thinking things like “Why don’t I knit my Mum a shawl for Christmas?” and “Oh! I could make some festive beaded napkin rings for Christmas”. I wish Christmas would hurry up and be over so that I can stop be tempted by the idea of more Christmas projects, especially when I still haven’t actually finished this scarf yet.

It’s all in the technique

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and I’ve decided mine sucks. ‘Sucks’ is probably too strong a word since I do manage to knit and create knitted things and my tension is even and I can knit to gauge. However, I do all the things I shouldn’t and don’t do lots of things I should. I don’t tension my yarn (how it comes out even, I don’t know and am scared to investigate); I drop the right needle; I sit badly and end up with weird pains in hands and shoulders.

I keep thinking I should learn to knit ‘properly’ for an as yet undetermined definition of ‘properly’. (Apologies, I’m a mathematician by nature and I can’t help it slipping out sometimes.) I’ve heard lots of people say things like “I taught myself to knit Continental and I’ve never looked back”. My problem is “When do I do this?” Obviously, I can’t change my knitting technique half-way through a project. The chances of my tension/gauge with the new technique (as I’m learning it!) matching my old tension/gauge are pretty much non-existent. However, I’m very rarely between projects. I’ve usually started the next one (or two … or three) before the current one is finished.

Maybe next time I try a felting project, I’ll also try learning a new technique. That way it will all come right in the wash. (And I promise that this entire post was based on a genuine thought and not an attempt to make a bad pun.)

The selfless knitter

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Something occurred to me yesterday: I’m a knitter; I knit lots of things for other people; I don’t have a nice scarf! How can I possibly not own a beautiful hand-knitted scarf? Also, I was wearing my nice but shop-bought pashmina yesterday and thought “Why have I not made me a beautiful shawl?” So, when I get a chance today, I’ll be off to search through Ravelry for suitable scarf and shawl patterns. I wonder how many I’ll end up queuing!

Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings

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I was witness to an adorable conversation on the way to the train station this morning. A little boy walking to school with his mum asked “Are you happy, Mummy?” His mother replied: “Yes, I’m happy.” “Why are you happy, Mummy?” “I’m happy because I’m with you and I love you so much.” They walked a little further on and then the little boy asked another question: “Why are you always happy, Mummy?” It made my day. Long may that be the biggest thing he has to worry about!

Speaking of babes, the second pair of bootees is finally finished and once I’ve photographed them in daylight tomorrow they’ll be ready to send off. Hurray! No more bootees! Just back to the interminable scarf.

The best laid schemes …

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… o’ mice an’ men, gang aft agley, to quote the Bard.

And so it was with me last night. My big plan to take my Henry scarf to I Knit and get a large chunk of it done was scuppered by me not remembering that I needed to take another ball of yarn with me. To paraphrase another poet “Yarn, yarn all around and not a drop to knit”. Damn having to match dyelots! I think I managed about a quarter of a row with what was left in the ball I had.
There turned out to be a silver lining though; I very nearly got the second pair of bootees completely finished! I finished knitting the second and got it sewn up and got most of the way through sewing up the other. Just the buttons to add and the main seam to sew and it’ll be ready to send off. (One of the girls last night said I had to make sure to send them registered post as it would be awful if something that pretty went missing.)

I Knit as always was great, even if everyone was making me jealous talking about the UK Stitch ‘n’ Bitch show on Saturday that I can’t go to.

Trying to do the right thing

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In order to assuage my knitting withdrawal, I decided to take my knitting (more bootees!) with me over the weekend. Aware that there was no way I was going to be able to take 5 dpns on in my hand luggage, I attempted to check my bag in. (Note the use of the word attempted!)

Now, although I arrived at the airport in plenty of time for my flight, I didn’t check my bag in straightaway, since I wanted to work on my knitting while I was waiting. At the last minute (50 minutes before my flight as per the instructions on my boarding card) I took my bag to the fast bag drop. Because it was so close to the departure of my flight, the woman behind the desk had difficulty printing the label for my bag. Calling over her supervisor, he explains how to print the label but then looks at my bag and asks “Is that the bag you’re checking in?” You know when you suddenly get the feeling that things are about to go horribly wrong? When I confirmed that it was, he then explained that if I checked that bag in, it wouldn’t arrive in Glasgow that night. “Are you sure you couldn’t take it on as hand-luggage?” At which point I removed a knitting needle from the bag and explained that I would love to take the bag on as hand luggage but I had four more just like that in there, so if they could explain to the security staff why I had to take them onboard, I’d be more than happy to comply. I also mentioned the expensive, larger-than-100ml toiletries that I had with me that I was not willing to “throw away” (their suggestion). I had only taken them because I knew I was going to have to check my bag in anyway!

The supervisor explained that because my bag was a rucksack with loose straps it had to go on the out-size bag conveyor, which took 20 minutes longer than the ordinary conveyor which was why it wouldn’t make it onto the plane in time (bearing in mind that the flight wasn’t due to leave for another 50 minutes!) I would then have to collect my bag from Glasgow airport the next morning.

Fortunately, the look on my face was sufficient to convince him that this was not an acceptable scenario and he managed to come up with another suggestion, which was to tie the straps of my rucksack together in a complicated arrangement to prevent them getting caught in the conveyor. He very helpfully explained that this was the reason it had to go on the out-size baggage conveyor “because if it goes on the ordinary conveyor, the straps could get caught and then your bag wouldn’t get through and no other bags wouldn’t get through.” That’s all true but nowhere on my boarding card did it say that rucksacks had to be checked in 20 minutes before all other luggage! This done, the label was printed and my bag was allowed to go on the ordinary conveyor.

All the way up on the flight, I was composing complicated plans involving trips to 24-hour supermarkets to purchase enough clothing to get me through the weekend just in case my bag wasn’t there at the other end. Fortunately, I was able to abandon these plans and breathe a sigh of relief when my bag appeared on the conveyor at Glasgow airport.

Lessons I learned (or re-learned) from this experience:

  1. Take the train, it’s just better (and usually only marginally longer)
  2. If you must fly, do everything as early in the process as you possibly can
  3. Airlines are not run for the convenience of their passengers (see item above)
  4. The current security rules concerning liquids and knitting needles are stupid (further details on why they won’t prevent a terrorist attack available on request)
  5. It’s worth paying extra to fly with a decent airline as the staff will usually make the effort to help sort a problem out rather than forcing you to throw away expensive toiletries and half-done knitting projects

And just to prove I had learned my lesson, on the way back, I checked in in plenty of time and dropped my bag off straightaway with the straps already tied up neatly and it arrived at the other end with no hassle or discussion. Of course, I still haven’t finished the bootees!

Withdrawal

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In theory, I fly back to Glasgow tonight to spend a fun weekend with friends at a spa for a friend’s hen party. In reality I’m anxious at the thought of having to go an entire weekend without knitting or having any real access to DP. I realise that the idea is that I’ll be spending a fun weekend with friends and probably won’t have time to miss my current obsessions too much but that’s not a great comfort at this point in time!

So much so that I’ve decided to succumb to the current stupid airline security rules and, while taking my knitting with me to help pass the two hours that I’ll be spending in Gatwick airport, will check my bag in to avoid possibly having my knitting needles confiscated.

To help cope with the DP withdrawal, I’ve loaded the Life of Charles Dickens by John Forster, Volume II onto my Palm to finish smoothreading it. I’m way behind, since the deadline for finishing was actually today but hopefully I can get through it over the weekend and not be too late. I’ve really enjoyed working on these and can’t wait until they’re finished and available from PG so that I can read them again in the future. They’re a wonderful picture of one of my favourite authors by one of his best friends. True, this means that they’re not always as honest as they could be, skipping over a lot of the personal stuff but you really get a feel for the sheer vitality of the man.

And, finally, two days in and I’m still on track with NaBloPoMo! I might struggle over the weekend though!

Glutton for punishment

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So, having finished one pair of bootees what do I do? Yup, I cast on for the second pair. This time I’m doing green with yellow trim instead of yellow with green. I’m also going to do them in the slightly bigger size, just in case the small ones are too small already.

On a similar note, since there’s absolutely no way I have time to participate in NaNoWriMo this year, I’ve decided to take part in NaBloPoMo instead. This means I’m going to attempt to blog at least once a day for the whole month. Given that I’m not going to have easy internet access for the next three days, this might be quite a challenge!