work in progress

Well, what a wipeout week!

Not only has the weather been wet and windy and horrible, I have also been confined to either under the duvet or under a blanket on the couch watching crap daytime tv and crocheting madly for a deadline. I have had a mystery illness which seemed to change shape and symptoms every day but due to the joys of freelancing, I have had to continue working to meet a deadline, as of course, I have another one pending when this one is finally met.

I shouldn’t complain as, if I had no work I would really be in trouble. However, it is when you are ill that the pros of a 9-5 working lifestyle seem more alluring. A proper duvet day is what is really needed this week, not a half duvet day, with most of me nestling under the covers while my hook-wielding hands poke out from underneath!

sunset from my window

On the bright side, living atop a hill in this weather can give you amazing city views with beautifully dramatic and tempestuous skies, which I managed to spy when I crawled out from my cocoon of blankets and yarn. (the picture above is the autumnal London sun setting on the city proper, but taken while a bit fuzzy myself, so sorry about the fuzzy quality!)

I also managed to almost meet the deadline even while consuming vast amounts of mindless television and laying down, as a result the swatches in the top picture finally made it into a bag-shaped item. Plus, it is nearly the weekend so I shall finally get my duvet day.

Working for myself: two, 9-5: nil !

(well, technically 9-5 has one point, but after a misspent youth watching the football results on grandstand, saying nil is always far more satisfying…)

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Thank you for blogging with us MontyKnits. You can follow the adventures of Montyknits here.

The blog-a-long finishes today so if you’d if you would like to join in make haste. Details of how to take part are here.

You can get all the blog-a-long updates by following p/hop on twitter and in the p/hop Ravelry group.

One of the walls of remembrance at the
Australian War Memorial in Canberra.

Simpson’s Donkey Statue at AWM

On my visit to Knit Nation last summer there were three highlights: an advanced lace class with Anne Hanson; the p/hop raffle; and meeting GingerKnits when I helped pack away the MSF stand.

There was some kind of synchronicity in force. Firstly I won a skein of  Old Maiden Aunt merino/bamboo 4ply which is beautifully soft with a silky sheen. Even better it was in a one-off colour “freeze” which was my absolute favourite turquoise blue shade.

So the obvious thing to do was to use it for a p’hop pattern. And lo and behold! The Dido scarf by Asa Tricosa uses a knit on edging just like I’d been learning in my lace class with Anne Hanson. Asa even has a thank you to Anne in her pattern notes.

Fate had decided. And the result, in this cold weather I have the softest, snuggliest, delicate lace scarf to hold off the chill.

Nothing better for hours of pleasure.
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Thank you for blogging with us lapurplepenguin. That’s a fine Dido you’ve made. You can read more from lapurplepenguin here.

We’ve extended the blog-a-long to Friday 12th November. If you would like to join in (the more the merrier) details of how to take part are here.

You can get all the blog-a-long updates by following p/hop on twitter and in the p/hop Ravelry group.

Yesterday I was inspired by ihearmotherhood’s Seize the Day post and was then cheered on by NicsKnots in the afternoon.

While I do make the most of living in London it does become all too easy to take this wonderful city for granted, especially when the nights draw in and the temperature plummets. Yesterday was one of those non-descript, rainy, cold London days. Not quite fog bound enough to resemble a scene from an Arthur Conan Doyle novel, just plain old dull.

I finished my morning duties and was determined to get into town to see Let the Right One In at the fantastic Prince Charles Cinema on the edge of Leicester Square. The PCC is a proper cinema with red velvet seats which shows films a few months after they came out, as well as art house cinema and theme nights. My favourite thing about them is they are so much cheaper than most London cinemas which charge around £11 per person, I can go to the theatre and see real live people act for less. On the bus into town we got chatting to two Ethiopian ladies who lived in Boston and who were wondering what to see in London while they were here on holiday. We had a lovely chat though we did end up apologising for the weather. How very British of us.

Here’s our view of Shaftsbury Avenue from the top deck of the bus.

We made it into the cinema just as the film started. I loved the film but won’t say too much here in case anyone hasn’t seen it. The cinema was a tad on the chilly side which added to the atmosphere of the film. If you’ve seen Let The Right One In and enjoyed it I’d highly recommend The White Ribbon (Das weiße Band)  which has a similar feel to it.

After the cinema we went into Chinatown (the cinema is right on the edge of it). While London’s Chinatown is small compared with other world cities it does have some great Asian supermarkets. I love trying new foods and we were also in need of new soup bowls. One of the supermarkets is spread out over three floors so I had a good look around. There were some things in there I’d never heard of and I wish I’d written the names down to look up on the internet when I got home. I did find Milk Peanut Soup which apparently is a “natural food for any season.” While this was intriguing I didn’t buy any on this shopping expedition.

I did buy some green tea noodles, teeny tiny fairy mushrooms, galangal for Thai cooking, dried jack fruit (we discovered this a few years ago on holiday in Malaysia) and beancurd skin. Yes, despite being a vegetarian food beancurd has skin. I encountered this a lot on my travels in Japan and developed a taste for it. I had it for breakfast on several occasions covering neat triangles of sticky rice. It’s the first time I’ve found it in a shop over here so I’m a happy bunny. I now need to learn what to do with it.

I’d hear a rumour that some Ravelers were in town so on my way home I popped into Loop, my LYS (Local Yarn Shop) to see what was occurring. My friend Rachel (aka knittingtastic) works at Loop so I expected to see her but also found Heather (aka cybil) who has volunteered with p/hop along with Rachel. They are both active members of Natalie’s (p/hop’s founder) group on Ravelry so while admiring some beautiful Shilasdair yarn with Cybil, who appeared coming up the stairs but Natalie herself.

Natalie & Cybil rummaging in Loop

I popped home to put my shopping away (I had galangal to freeze – yeah yeah, I know, how very Islington of me), then headed back out into the chily night to meet the Sheddites (the moniker for members of Natalie’s Ravelry group) for tea. We went to the Bangers and Mash cafe where everyone tucked into, well, bangers and mash. I’m surprised there was time for eating never mind pudding as there was so much chat and laughter from a funny, intelligent and lively group of women. It was great fun and I had a lovely time nattering with Cybil/Heather and Christine who is visiting from the USA.

There was the obligatory passing round of knitwear as well as a spot of knitting.

I have to say though, getting this lot to hold still for a photo was like herding cats.

After a fun evening of blethering I headed home and knit a few rows on my current project, the Citron Shawl from Knitty.com. The yarn is Rowan Damask which I picked up in a yarn sale a few years ago. I had started to make another Clapotis from it but didn’t like the way the drop down stitches looked in the Damask, it has a slight thick/thin quality to it which made the edges look untidy, even with knitting through the back loop. While I have a few spare balls of Damask yarn I have been knitting straight from the Clapotis to the Citron. I’m calling it Knitamorphosis, it’s fun watching a piece of knitting I don’t like shrink while the other grows. I’m much happier with the way the yarn is looking as a Citron shawl. This is part of the inevitable giftmas knitting. I should get it finished by the end of the week if I can cope with the last few rounds, 444 stitches anyone? I wish I’d taken it to the cinema with me.

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You might already recognise me as p/hop Clare. This is me writing as my knitting alter ego, Gingerknits.

We’ve extended the blog-a-long to Friday 12th November. If you would like to join in (the more the merrier) details of how to take part are here.

You can get all the blog-a-long updates by following p/hop on twitter and in the p/hop Ravelry group.

MSF Pete here, I thought this was such a great post about p/hop from mostcurious that I emailed to ask if we could mirror it here. Mostcurious replied “absolutely!” So here it is…..

Because I am so very fond of MSF/Doctors Without Borders, and this is a knitblog I would be very much in remiss if I didn’t mention p/hop’s 2nd Birthday. Last year, I blogged for p/hop.. They are again hosting a birthday blog-a-long which I have found myself unfortunately too freaking busy to read much of (let alone post for this time around), but what I have read is, as usual, ace.

p/hop is a unique knitting charity. Most knitting charities I am aware of involve knitting specific things and giving those things to that charity. p/hop is much more open and approachable for any knitter. There are a couple of ways to p/hop. The one I think of most often is pattern based. Designers donate patterns, which are then distributed by p/hop free of charge, on the honor system that you will donate (US link) (UK link) to MSF what you think the pattern is worth. The acronym p/hop actually stands for just that: pennies per hour of pleasure.

The second way to p/hop is to join their Ravelry group. Most of what happens in the group is that people offer yarn or books in return for p/hop donations. It’s like a destashing kind of thing, but instead of asking other knitters to pay you, you ask that they donate to p/hop for MSF what you think the yarn is worth, and then they post it to you. Of course, it’s on the honor system, so it’s possible people are not donating very much, but I think that’s one of the things I love about p/hop. It’s all about trusting that your fellow knitters are good people. Every time I read anything related to p/hop I feel better about humanity in general because of the honor system it follows (and the good work that MSF/Doctors Without Borders does helps too.)

In the past year, I have donated a couple of times for patterns. My first p/hop knitting was done last year, I started Socks for Little Witches in November and finished pretty quickly thereafter. I don’t think I actually knit anything else, but I donated a little more for the Cranford Mitts pattern even though I have never finished them (bad yarn choice on my part! The pattern is awesome.) I know the p/hop group is doing a KAL of that now, but I’m off doing a few other things. I will get back to it and finish eventually, I’m sure.

I have also acquired a bit of yarn via the Ravelry group. I will shut up and just give you pictures here, so you can judge for yourself.

This is a very recent acquisition. Mmm, blue and green.

This I acquired quite a while back. Lovely stuff. Needs knitting up, like so much of my stash.

In the end I love p/hop because they are raising money by asking knitters to donate by doing the things knitters do and paying a little here and there; whatever any knitter can afford, be it $1 or whatever. What other charity do you know that asks so little of you? All they want is pennies per hour of pleasure, and those pennies go to help people who can’t afford medical care all over the world. I love p/hop!

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Thank you for your lovely words about p/hop Mostcurious. You can follow the adventures of Mostcurious here.

We’ve extended the blog-a-long to Friday 12th November. If you would like to join in (the more the merrier) details of how to take part are here.

You can get all the blog-a-long updates by following p/hop on twitter and in the p/hop Ravelry group.

As ever, life at The Knitter HQ has been busy! We sent Issue 26 to press yesterday, so it’s a perfect opportunity to do some catching up before deadline looms large again. I’m of those knitters that always have far too many projects on the needles, I may have mentioned this before… But that didn’t stop me from getting taken up in the whirlwind of an obsession on my week off.

The problem is that different projects are suited to different knitting situations and moods, and it takes more than one project to have the perfect thing for every knitting opportunity. I need something portable and interesting for the bus ride to work. I’m a morning person, so there’s nothing nicer than a complex charted shawl or socks on the bus first thing. But it needs to be small and not require lots of balls of yarn or too many different needles. Later on when I come home then I’ve used up the capacity for concentration, so at this point I need something small and portable that is mindless – a stocking stitch sleeve, or some plain vanilla socks. Again, it can’t be too big as I have limited space in my work bag, and with 2 projects it’s already quite full! On top of that I need a balance of needle sizes so that if my hands get tired of the 2.75mm circulars that the shawl is worked on, then I can swap to something chunkier. And at home in front of the TV, there is always a need for a similar mix of larger projects – some that require concentration, and some easy ones.

So the scene is set – multiple projects, and one would think that there was something for every situation. However, when I came to pack my knitting for 3 nights away, I was stumped as to what to take. My heart wanted to crack on and make serious progress on the Golden Wheat shawl (it’s sitting quietly making me feel guilty for ignoring it), but my head knew that given how tired I was, it would end in tears. Everything on the needles seemed like a long slog. The socks are amazing, but even if I was faithfully knitting on them, I would probably only finish one in the time I was away. So I started scanning magazines and looking online, when it hit me. What I needed was hats. Of course, I hear you cry! The weather was just turning, and there’s something immensely satisfying about how quickly even a 4ply hat goes from cast on to fastening off. It was the perfect solution to the conundrum. Little did I know that this would be the start of something…

I started with Community Gardens from the latest Twist Collective, paired with some lovely yarn from my swap friend, Sarah, and only a few hours later I knew I was on to something. The buzz of an interesting pattern followed quickly by the satisfaction of a finished object. I then hit a hitch – my sister-in-law fell in love with the finished hat, and proclaimed that it would be perfect for her Christmas present. So out came the needles and some more yarn, and before I even acknowledged it, a second hat had tipped off the needles. I loved its leafiness and quick knitting properties. So I went back to my pattern shelves in search of more. Before I knew it I had paired up yarn and patterns for two more hats, and then I started to notice a theme… it was all looking very green! By the end of my week off work, there was a satisfying pile of hats, all shades of green. I felt knitting renewed and ready to tackle a larger project. I wish I could say that in the ten days since I got back from holiday, I have worked religiously on my shawl… I have completed another pattern repeat, but there’s a Mystery Hat KAL being run by Woolly Wormhead, and a pretty p/hop ear flap hat pattern (Twisted Twigs), and some more green yarn in my stash…

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Thank you for blogging with us Jen. You might know Jen as TheKnitterTechEd as she is the Technical Editor for The Knitter, who kindly donated the gorgeous Chic Spring Beret by Jane Crowfoot pattern earlier in the year.

We’ve extended the blog-a-long to Friday 12th November. If you would like to join in (the more the merrier) details of how to take part are here.

You can get all the blog-a-long updates by following p/hop on twitter and in the p/hop Ravelry group.

Part of the ethos of Island Life is getting involved. For a number of years, DH and I have taken part in the annual goose census – counting the numbers of (predominantly) Greylag geese on Sanday. The count happens on two days; one in November and the other a month later in December and is organised by the island’s Countryside Ranger, Roderick Thorne, on behalf of the RSPB and other bodies..

So last Saturday I put aside my spinning wheel and fleece and set off to count the geese.This year I was on my own doing ‘our’ part of the Island. DH was down in London and Beth was unfortunately elsewhere, introducing new hens to her established ones.

Not always as easy as it may sound

The idea was to drive around my designated bit of Sanday and every time I saw a field of geese, stop and count them, preferably without disturbing them as they’re easier to count on the ground.  Sounds simple, doesn’t it? Well, I discovered that it’s not quite as simple when you’re on your own as when there are two of you, as in addition to doing the driving, I was also looking from side to side, and checking in the rear view mirror that I wasn’t holding anyone up! Luckily Sanday’s roads are very quiet.

It was a beautiful day for it – low winter sunshine, with the threat of showers, but not too much wind. Off I set, with my Thermos, binoculars and telescope (note the order of importance)  - with Tan, our sheepdog, in the back of the car.

In the morning session, covering the Burness area of Sanday, I saw just over 1,300 geese, with about 60 of those being the more unusual (for this time of year) Pink-footed geese. Also seen was a short-eared owl and a kestrel, both sitings being worthy of noting down.

The came the highlight of the day – lunch provided by Rod the Ranger’s wife Sylvia. Warm soup, homemade rolls, sausages, cheese… the table was groaning!

Having recharged my batteries I set off up the North end of the Island to do my other bit – and wondered what had happened to all the geese! Having seen well over a thousand in the morning, I was very disappointed to only see 150 in the afternoon. But it all adds to the Orkney-wide total for the RSPB.

All in all  a very un-sheepy day, but an absorbing one.

…and now, to resume normal service — back to the spinning wheel!

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Thank you for blogging with us SandaySpinner. You can read more from SandaySpinner here.

We’ve extended the blog-a-long to Friday 12th November. If you would like to join in (the more the merrier) details of how to take part are here.

You can get all the blog-a-long updates by following p/hop on twitter and in the p/hop Ravelry group.

It’s freeeezing up here in the North West. The rain is lashing down, my windows are rattling in the wind and even the ladybirds that have sneaked in the flat hoping for warmth are all huddled together in nooks and crannies. Plus a trip to the big smoke for yesterday and being soaked through have left me feeling decidedly peaky, which even being treated to a hot toddy at Shoreditch House by a dear old friend has failed to dent.

There’s only one thing for it: Yum Yum soup. I’ve seen this called variously Tom Yum/Tom Yam soup but has been Yum Yum soup to me since discovering it in a Thai restaurant years ago and finding it’s spicy, sour goodness making short work of a particularly bad case of the sniffly blues. I can’t promise this is an authentic recipe but it’s really quick to make, you can adjust the spiciness and ingredients to your taste, it tastes amazing and is guaranteed to clear out the passages!

Here’s how I make it:

• Chop up some garlic, shallots and chili and fry in a pan with a small amount of oil
• Add a generous spoonful or two of Tom Yam paste
• Add 500 ml of boiling water, a good slug of fish sauce and some lime juice
• Throw in some prawns and mushrooms (or any other veg you fancy – also goes nicely with spinach and baby corn)
• Eat!

What’s your favourite comfort food?

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Yum yum EatKnitRead. You can follow EatKnitRead on her blog.

We’ve extended the blog-a-long to Friday 12th November. If you would like to join in (the more the merrier) details of how to take part are here.

You can get all the blog-a-long updates by following p/hop on twitter and in the p/hop Ravelry group.

Little bit of dyeing done today – I am trading the fibre (BFL in Blackberry and Paeony and some Safflower already done) for a custom spindle via Ravelry, and the yarn is for someone who bought a skein of it this summer and now needs more.  There may be a problem with the latter: it’s a 2009 recipe and I don’t have exactly the same dyes now, but we’ll have to see if she can cope with it.

The cat has been doing much perching among the fibre recently – the cold weather drives her to the fluff.  It won’t be long before she’s in bed with me, rather than just immobilising my legs from above.

And this little chap finally got finished and off on his way.  I don’t normally get finishitis, but I certainly did with this.

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Thank you for blogging with us Freyalyn.

We’ve extended the blog-a-long to Friday 12th November. If you would like to join in (the more the merrier) details of how to take part are here.

You can get all the blog-a-long updates by following p/hop on twitter and in the p/hop Ravelry group.

This is my second post in ‘Project positive’.  I’m writing this with the rain pouring down outside, it’s pitch black and its barely 6pm and the house is freezing even though the heating has been on for over an hour.

It is really easy to feel down when the nights draw in and it’s cold and dark so I have decided to post a list of reasons to be cheerful and positive in the cold winter months

• Cold days are a perfect excuse for stew and dumplings…and pudding and custard.
• There is nothing better than curling up on the settee, sticking a dvd on and knitting under a blanket for the evening.
• It may be dark but actually, once it gets dark, it’s all ok, it could be 7pm or 1am…always helps to convince me that I can do another hour of work
• Cold and rainy days mean that I don’t feel guilty about neglecting the garden when I went to knit..or sew.
• If the weather is rubbish, there’s no need to feel like you are wasting the day if you spend an extra hour in bed, it’s not like you are rushing out to appreciate the sun
• Cold days mean that we can wear all of the hats and scarves that we seem to have in abundance in this house; I’m not kidding, Lou has 8 hats…does she really need that 9th one I about to start knitting?!

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Good advice and ideas from NicsKnots. Thank you Nic.

We’ve extended the blog-a-long to Friday 12th November. If you would like to join in (the more the merrier) details of how to take part are here.

You can get all the blog-a-long updates by following p/hop on twitter and in the p/hop Ravelry group.