SP12 wrap-up

A lovely surprise was waiting for me when I got home today:

The final parcel from my SP –  Ruth of ‘Roo Knits‘.
Check out her orange ‘express lane’ socks – they’re great!

Two hanks of cashmere ‘Posh yarn’ – I giggled when I saw the shade name ‘Temper’ 🙂 2 ball of ‘sock it to me’ yarn, mainly cotton with a bit of elastan. ‘Divine’ chocolate, 2 different kinds of chocolate covered marzipan, a sweet little notebook, skittles, a shawl pattern and last but by no means least – a signed copy of ‘Things I Learned from Knitting  …whether I wanted to or not’  by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee.

Thankyou so much Ruth, you certainly have spoiled me! I’ve already started on the book and marzipan, and I’m having ideas about the posh yarn too (yep probably a scarf…)

On a similar note, the final parcel I sent out to my downstream pal Jule has arrived. She has already started spinning the merino roving, and I can’t wait to see the results.

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SP12 – question of the week catch up

Unlucky Question 13!

If you were told you could never again buy yarn, what would your last yarn purchase be?
5kg of 4ply (fingering weight) sock yarn – 1kg silk/merino blend, 1kg bamboo/wool blend, 1kg cotton/elastan blend, 1kg cotton/acrylic blend, and 1kg pure wool. All in a variety of colours but no pink whatsoever.
That should keep me going for a few years, and not just for socks!

If you were told you could never knit again, what would be the last thing you’d knit??
A felted 3/4 length coat out of the noro yoroi I have stashed away.

In a given year, how many times do you buy yarn? And what is your favorite place to buy yarn from? A festival? A shop? Online? Dish your favorite places!!
I buy yarn about 8 times a year – usually a couple of big (for me) online purchases and the rest are opportunistic shopping with friends.  I’ve never been to a yarn festival, so I dread to think how much I could spend if I did go to one! My favourite yarn shops (at the moment):

• getknitted.com – fast service, reasonable range, good bargains and above all prompt friendly responses to email enquiries.
• Twist fibre crafts – not used their website, but the shop is like an Aladdin’s cave. The folk who run it are very helpful. When I couldn’t go in to pick something up, they posted it out the next day.

Lastly, with Fall in full swing in many areas, what is the one thing you look forward to most?
Kicking up fall leaves while walking to work. It reminds me of fun things that’ll be happening soon like toffee apples and bonfires and my friend’s halloween/fireworks party.

Question #12
I’m sure most of us have a proudest moment when it comes to knitting. A project or technique that you’ve tackled and completed beautifully. What is your proudest knitting moment??
Learning to cable without a cable needle:) It revived my interest in knitting!

And on the flip side? What is the one thing that you can’t get right? What is that one project that you’ve never been able to complete? Or that you did complete but then hid away instantly because it was too embarrassing?
A felted hat I tried to make recently – it just didn’t work, still too big even after several journeys through the washing machine. And further back? a brioche stitch beret – looks great on the styrofoam head but it so doesn’t suit me!  (That one ended up in a charity shop.) I still haven’t finished the spiral boot socks I started. I have most of the second sock to do and that’s 7 months later… One sock at a time – never again!

sp12 – question of the week no 11

What is the best thing you’ve ever received in the mail/post?

Three lengths of silk. Two were heavyweight self-patterned, 1 piece in red the other black. The third was a lightweight buttersoft satin in cream/light faun.

The fabric was a gift from a loved one, for me to make into an outfit for formal occasions possibly even our wedding. One idea was black skirt, satin blouse and red neru or chinese styled jacket. We parted company a few months later. I still have the fabric and eventually will make it into something very special.

sp12 – question of the week no 10

What Olympic event would best describe you knitting/knitting style?

For larger projects, the 1500m or marathon – all the preparation/swatching/designing could be the training, and the looong time from cast on to finished product is the actual race.

For small stuff like simple socks or hats etc, say the 100m dash.

And felting projects would have to be  the ‘high-dive’ (or whatever the official name is), because I’m never _entirely_ sure of the result even with all the preparation!

SP12 question of the week – no 9

Have you ever entered your knitting (or anything else) in the fair? Would you ever consider it?

Yes, I’ve entered several ‘sewn’ outfits, made from my own designs or from commercial patterns (all depending on the entry rules). Never before entered knitting but it’s something I would think about:)

SP12 question of the week – no 8

What is your favorite supper for a hot summer evening?

Green leaf salad with soft goats cheese and crusty bread, followed by lemon/mango sorbet. 
(Salad leaves – buckler leaf sorrel, watercress, mini gem lettuce for bulk, tiny amount of fresh coriander or basil, maybe drizzled very lightly with extra virgin olive oil. )

If I was having folk round, I’d offer them a medium-dry white wine to go with the salad, although normally I’d usually just have iced water.

Unexpected Surprise

A wonderful packet arrived from my SP on July 19th. Noro sock yarn, Green & Blacks Cherry chocolate, bamboo dpns and a butterfly card.

The chocolate didn’t last, I have to confess 🙂 It’s one of my favourite flavours from that brand. The sock yarn is next in the queue for casting on, after the fun of deciding on a pattern – great excuse for browsing websites and books!

This was a lovely belated birthday surprise. Thankyou so much, dear SP!

SP12 question of the week – catch up! Nos 4 – 7

First day back at work. Requires a lot of coffee! The upside is now that I’m not on holiday I have better internet connection again – it doesn’t fall over and, unlike my holiday connectivity, it is faster than a comatose snail.

So… I can finally tell all about the craft stuff I’ve been up to. But first, sp12 questions:

No 4

1) What yarn (that you don’t have/haven’t used) would make your stash “complete”?

Hard one, I’m on a bit of a hunt for linen or cotton or silk or bamboo blended with elastane or another non-wool fibre for elasticity. I love wool, but in the summer it’s a bit too warm even here 🙂 I’m playing with tofutsies sock yarn at the moment, and while I love the feel of it I think I’d like some similar in solid or semi-solid colours.

2) What yarn do you never want to be without?

Noro kureyon of any weight, and Yoroi from the same company. The latter was the first ‘luxury’ yarn I invested in, and it’s still my favourite.
Kureyon is the only yarn I have ever found that has accurate needle/gauge recommendations. In other words if the ball band says 4.5mm needles, that’s what I use. For every other yarn I’ve used, I have to change needle size to get the recommended tension.

No 5

1) Where is your favorite place to go for vacation/holiday?

I’d have to say Skye. My upstream sp and I were exchanging emails about holiday destinations and this reminded me just how much I loved the place. There’s also at least two yarn manufacturers there that are easy to find, and a place that does craft breaks/courses if you enquire.

2) Where is one place you’d like to go?

Iceland and/or the Faroe Isles. I have a friend in Iceland who’s into possibly an even more eclectic mix of hobbies than I am and we’d have so much fun exploring the places and learning about local crafts.

No 6

What is your favorite type of project to take along on holiday/vacation?

If I take anything, it’d be something small. Socks maybe, now that I’m more familiar with how their construction works, or gloves. Having said that, I think I’d prefer something I don’t do so often, so maybe tablet weaving, as long as I set it up before I go:)

If you’d like to share a story…Tell us about a time that you packed too much knitting or were stranded without knitting.

Anytime I’m without knitting or anything else to do, I fall back on doodling knotwork even if I have to borrow pen ‘n’ paper to do it.

No 7

What is(are) your favorite place(s) to knit?

Currently: on the sofa in front of a dvd.

What supplies (besides yarn & needles) make the setting perfect for knitting?

A little ‘box of tricks’ similar to the one I have for sewing, but with knitting oriented stuff instead. I haven’t gotten round to it yet, but I fully intend filling an altoids tin with: tape measure, yarn-friendly needles, stitch markers, needle gauge, the broken crochet hook I’ve got, finger guards, tape threader and anything else I come across that’d be useful and fit in!