Unravel the third (and last)

The 'knit a river for water aid' River was flowing over the banister at the turn of the stairs - I think I'll need to make them a square now, it looked cool and is. The guys from 'I Knit', a new knitting shop in London, brought it - they spend Saturday afternoons in the shop piecing it together. It sounds like a cool shop - open mostly in the evenings, and knitting clubs several nights a week. They were selling some lovely yarn at the show - I bought some Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn in lovely reds and blacks.

There was also the Knitted garden (or rather, a part of it) - fun, looks good, but not really my thing (same for the gingerbread house in progress in the same room). I think the latter is for charity - for GOS and North Devon Hospice.

An artist had been working with school children doing 'wool collographs' (printing with wool) on sugar paper, which was all folded and combined to create this magic thing.


Two artists had created knitted wire pieces - a very realistic bicycle was sent over from Canada (imagine the packing!) and these ethereal (?christening) robes and little shoes showed beautifully in a cubbyhole.

And I think I said that there were lots of young people running around doing all the work in the place - (with fab headpieces on) -well this chap was taking tea to all the workers in a pinnie with emergency crochet hooks etc slotted into specially designed loops - and was only too happy to be photographed with it on. I like boys like that!

Blogger is being a total b*gger today about posting. I keep on trying though...

Unravel - knit and knot

Knit and knot has been done in several schools around Bracknell before the show - and the results were up; looked as if they'd had lots of fun.

The thing is - so did we!












Meet my pompom, BTW, of which I was inordinately proud.

Unravel further....

The painted sheep at Unravel were amusing.

They seemed pretty happy.


It was good to have some on-the-sheep wool to see amidst all the yarn and art projects!

Unravel

What a fabulously fun day out! I think there'll be a series of posts about this, as blogger doesn't like too many pics in one post, I find.

Anyway, Unravel in Bracknell was an unmitigated success as far as S and I were concerned. Every person working there - including staff in the cafe - seemed to have a headdress consisting of a hairband wrapped in yarn with a small ball of yarn on the left with 2 tiny knitting needles through it. Looked great! (That's me sorted for headware at the enxt wedding I go to...) Lots of young people involved in running the thing, and a very varied audience - people like me who had travelled far due to our knitting obsession, and local families coming for a day out; people who had been involved in the lead up outreach events (in schools, for young people, and older adults too).

The pics here are of Rachael John's (scroll down) most 'Extreme knitting' as her technique is called - she usually uses lots of different yarns together, but this time used 1,000! She had specially made HUGE needles and lots of helpers. Doesn't it look beautiful with the waterfall of yarn! The final product would make a great futon mattress, certainly thicker than some I have slept on!

Teaswap goodies

Melanie S - thanks! This is the lovely box that came across the pond to me - 3 skeins of handspun (I have passed the pale one, pinks and mauves to my S-i-L as it should be a perfect trim for what she is making for my niece). I'm especially smitten by the one next to the pale one - earth colours it says, has a real depth to the colours. Love it! Intrigued by the drapy 'Incanto' in two rich colours, and the Paton's 'Decor' in red and brown is a favourite earthy colourway of mine. Looking forward to trying all those thoughtful teas, too! Can you see how many different ones there are?

Thanks!

More re course

Alice - for this first module, I've received a whole lot of info about the course in general, the expectations, the support available (tutor's home phone no., email etc) and so forth. Also a little starter pack for 'frottage' (which is rubbing in a different context than I've heard the word used before!) and collage, as I will be doing these (but haven't yet got onto that part of the module). So far, I have started a piece of work documenting and describing the tools used in handknitting in detail (so far I've done needles); I need to start a dictionary of abbreviations/marks used to denote particular stitches or combinations of stitches (eg SSK). I've knitted about 20 little samplers of cast-ons and cast-offs (using different yarn for the relevant bit) and started sewing them to card and carefully labelling them.

I'll let you know what I do next!

City and Guilds...

So, I've started module one of the City and Guilds 7922 Level 3 handknitting (and design) course with Loraine McClean of WSTouchbase, having met Loraine and some of her students at the museum and art gallery here in Brum last month. Did I blog about that? Should have - Loraine was very interesting and inspiring, it was great to meet and chat with other students and see their work, the homemade bread pudding was deelish (if heavy as a cannonball) and the exhibition "Mirror, Bead and Thread", A Celebration of Gujarati Textiles, part of the year-long Art and Islam series was fantastic.

Anyway, I've started my work for the first module - so far I have done samples of ways of casting on, and ways of casting off. Here are most of the cast-off specimens pinned out to block before I sew them onto card and stick printed labels next to them. It's actually quite good fun, and made me try a few (tubular for example) that I haven't before.

Jonah and the Penguins.

I have a new Cousin! My cousin, Jamie, and his Partner, Harriet, have had a baby - called Jonah. I've just finished sewing up his cardiagan, made from Opal sock yarn, using the Knitty pattern 'Devan'. An easy knit, and should be fairly indestructible, I hope.

The lovely Penguins are from Injabulo, and are sewn on VERY TIGHTLY to avoid choking.


I'm also still knitting the pink cashmere shawl - miles to go - and finished the somewhat hideous shawl for my niece to wear as a bridesmaid (hideaous because I detest the wishy-washy colours, you can see them below. Nice yarn to knit with!)

Need to start another pair of socks for lots of journeys over the next week - I'm off to 'Unravel' on Staurday, and then having a day at the Jewish museum in Camden with my mum on Tuesday.

Black Bunny/Eleonora F.O. Third pair of socks!

My beautiful Black Bunny fiber (Charcoal its very self) Has been transformed into delicious Eleonora socks (from Miriam of Mimknits and Icarus fame, recently interviewed by our very own Wendy).

Loooovely yarn to knit with, as I'm sure we can all attest, and really enjoyed the pattern, too. 3 pairs of socks, so far!


(I'm wearing my socks right now, and they are perfect!)


Oh, and I've shown a detail of the yarn for deliciousness-proof.