Buy yarn 'til you drop - Wollmeise confessions of a yarn addict!

It's a sombre Friday afternoon in the office, and everyone's busy working away at what they're meant to be doing. Then there's me; working on worky stuff on Ravelry, cracking out the knitting projects to sew some buttons on ready for photography, so i put on knitting TV to run in the background. 'Knitting TV?' I hear you ask, why yes friends, you've all watched it, it's the Ravelry Radar. The Ravelry radar scrolls recent posts as and when they happen, from anywhere in the world. You're reading what's being posted of the moment, like Twitter I guess.

If I'm being really indulgent I'll stick my headphones on and listen to Absolute Radio 60s, my new favourite station.

So with the world around me busying away, typing, whispered muttering in the distance, there's me with the darning needle out stitching away, lining up my buttons to buttonholes etc. Then it started: I glanced up, to see this for sale:

Now to any 'muggle' out there, these just look like two twisty things. To a basic knitter, it's 'probably yarn'. A more experienced knitter might describe this as 'very beautiful yarn'. Me, I go for screaming at the top of my lungs: 'IHAVETOHAVETHISNOWTHISISTHEBESTYARNINTHEWORLD!!!!!STOPEVERYTHING!!!!!' which in my mind sounded more like 'What beautiful skeins of Wollmeise Pure Merino, I rather like those'.

*cough*

...So let's all take a moment and think about why this is. When I described to co-workers what I had just seen jumping out of my computer screen at me (probably whilst dribbling), I got a look that definitely said 'YOU ARE CRAZY'. One described me as an 'impatient capricorn', which is a new one on me, I have to say!

In justifying my actions in buying said yarn immediately (now now now!), I was completely stuck!!!! How do I make non-knitters understand what this means to me? Why did I buy it? I think in the end, I eventually mumbled my way around to 'because they're rare as hen's teeth and sooo beautiful - I don't know when I'll get the chance to get one like this again'. But the feeling is much stronger than that, I'm really having trouble putting it into words and accurately conveying the hunger and urgency(!!!).

It was after this moment of reflectiont that Ravelry TV flashed this up on my screen, for sale from the same lady;

...I as good as fainted at this point. We're talking cartoon 'swoon' here. I had to have it, and for once I was 'on the Radar'. Any of you who have bought Wollmeise skeins will know that they disappear impossibly quickly brand new, and second-hand get snapped up pretty quick. But they're universally loved in the knitting world; a check just now (15 Jul 2014) showed 97,000+ stashed balls advertised on Ravelry. Just think about how many people don't bother taking photos and putting all the info out there. Thats A LOT.

£42 and three days later, they landed on my desk. Thud.

I'm the first to admit that I don't like Mondays, so much the same as having my lava lamp on my workdesk at home which MUST always be on when I'm working, I laid these guys next to each other just in the corner of my eye. The colours were soothing. I love colour.

It didn't take a second glance from the Friday doubters to identify 'that yarn'. One decided that the blue/ochre/purple skein was about to become a pair of socks for her for Christmas to which I smiled and nodded - it's a NO though! Another deeply mezmerized by the colours.

So that got me thinking even more - are there drugs in this yarn? Is it a sensory sensation which can and must be enjoyed by all? Who knows. But finding a common frame of reference about this stuff with non-knitters is impossible! If you have any suggestions, I'd like to hear 'em!

Lace is about to get Irished!

Like, I never even learned to crochet until about 8(?) years ago. I'd already started working for a knitting company as a demonstrator and teacher type person, but crochet was not a skill I posessed. I wasn't the only one, at that time less than half of the people working for that company in that role, were confident enough in crochet to teach customers. It's weird how knitting is more 'fashionable' or whatever, at the moment, which has basically flipped over the last 80 years, or so I am told.

In the office today it was mentioned that Woman's weekly magazine, who have been going for over 100 years, didn't publish any knitting patterns at all until near the 2nd World War. Just crochet up until then. I was proper gobsmacked by that, I mean, really? I don't picture the suffragettes and stuff crocheting, it had always, always been knitting in my mind.

I had heard about how Queen Victoria had re-invigorated the fashionability of crochet after her husband's death. One rumour I'd also heard is that she felt it looked more 'dainty' than knitting, but I can't find any actual solid details of that anywhere. I may have dreamt that one.

The article I read earlier (see above link) talked about starving peasants taking up the craft to make some money and feed themselves. It then was over-abundant and such crocheted 'Irish' lace was seen as being common and cheap. It took gifting some to Queen Victoria, who loved it enough to wear it with pride, to really make it fashionable.

The above is an example of Irish lace, a series of motifs joined together at the very end with a series of chains and treble-type stitches to form a background mesh.

I am probably the least feminie girl you will ever know, I'm a huge tomboy, an ex-kickboxer with blue hair - this stuff SHOULDN'T appeal to me. But I tell you why it does;

1. So the eventual wedding dress thing comes up from time-to-time. Ideas for what to do with mine are a never-ending sketch, and yeah, I'm thinking some panels in this Irish awesomeness. That gives me two or three years to become a ninja master at creating those delicate small motifs. Whenever I fancy a bit of teeny crochet, I can whip one up, throw it on a pile, and move on to knit some socks or whatever. My Pinterest boards kinda explain it better than my words can.
2. THE THRILL IS IN THE CHASE! It is definitely proof that crochet is nowhere near as popular as knitting at the moment, by the fact that I have to hunt high and low to find the crochet threads and hooks I like. My favourite shop for crochet stuff overall, is hands-down, PurpleLindaCrafts. She's just got a cracking range, but I still had to go to some obscure stockist for something that she didn't have. It shouldn't have to be this hard! Takes me frikking hours to find stuff sometimes.
3. Well lastly but not leastly, it's a challenge, ain't it?I do get bored with plain and repetitive projects quite easily unless I picked said project intentionally as something comatose to do in front of the TV. Irish crochet is not one of these things. It will keep me busy and challenged no end. Plus, I'll be learning!

Elanor King is going to lend me a book with some cool motifs in for me to try (thanks, Eleanor), and I've bought some crochet thread in 12, 16, 30 and 40 count to try out. I may have gone overboard there, but I still think it'll be worth it in the end with all this experimentation.

Plus I had to invest in some of these:

 If you have been living under a rock for the last few months, you may not have seen the new Amour crochet hook range from Clover. I bought the 2.00mm - 6.5(?)mm set to self-congratulate on the new job landing a couple of months back, but now I'm on the thread lace binge, I thought I'd better get the smaller ones, so they are on their way! They are worth what you pay, they are really comfortable. Feels really odd going from one of them back to a regular metal hook. Reeeeally weird.

So watch this space, basically. Lace is about to get Irished-up. Just gotta endure the withdrawal-like mail order wait for stuff to turn up. I hate that bit, don't you hate that bit?!!

Movie cakes and bizarro face bakes

So those of you who know me in person, will know that I am a bit of a closet baker. I say closet merely for the fact that I don't seem to be able to do it very often. There are never enough people around me to eat a cake in it's entirety, and it's not like you can just bake one slice. Although.. saying that, in my new job, there are lots of mysteriously appearing cakes, and lots of people to eat them, so this could all be about to change.

Anyway, so if I've got a reason to make a cake, I tend to really go for it, and get it out of my system. Problem is, even with the best intentions, they all come out looking deathly creepy.

So this is the last time I managed to do that; introducing, The Man in the Moon cake. Those of you who are familiar with The Mighty Boosh (which is a very obscure, very weird UK 'comedy' for those of you who may not have heard about it. It is the brainchild of two bizarre comedians, and in my opinion, a passable querky half-hour, and little else. But that's not important. What's important was that it was our friend's favourite TV show. So when it was his birthday, I baked a blue sponge cake, and decorated it for him.

The um.. 'real' Man in the Moon off the telly

My cake version of the Man in the Moon (with evident over-sized features; yes, I know)

Kinda goofy. But yeah. Man in the moon was a fun one. I mean, I've done three of these now (sadly, I cannot show you one as it was a giant, veiny penis for a Hen do, and just a little too extreme for my fluffy blog), and I don't seem to have learned that I should measure features against the size of the cake BEFORE I sculpt them, what I've been doing is just kinda building stuff while the cake is in the oven. They're always too big. But then I think this has given me my own 'signature' style. Who am I kidding, there is no business idea here. These are just special gifts for friends.

Man in the moon has facial features sculpted from fondant icing, with an egg-white icing (mallow) for coverage. If you ever try to make mallow icing, make sure you've got a flipping electric whisk handy. TRUST ME.

..That was a couple of years ago now.

This year, specifically the weekend just passed, it was time for our Friend Jonny's birthday. He's been through a tough time this year so I had to do something really really special for him. Now our friend Jonny likes the film Hellraiser (including the sequels, 2, 3 and 4). So it was an easy character to pick for him. My fella and I decided on Pinhead.

Pinhead, the leading evil force in the Hellraiser movies

My Pinhead cake

This is my Pinhead. Apart from five of the pins, which are birthday candles, the rest are cocktail sticks (which after a few drinks, we were lucky not to have injured ourselves, really). The teeth were dyed with Turmeric (we'd run out of yellow food colouring, and saffron didn't work), and the all of it was sculpted from fondant icing. The sponge is a black and white marble cake (when cut into it, Jonny said it looked 'dead inside' - cool), took a whole tube of black food colouring to get that one to work. I wonder what's in that stuff, anyway? Oh well.

Needless to say, Jonny loved it. So I'm really happy to have made the effort for him. My oversized features have actually made it look a bit creepier, I think. But if you can visually add a bit of forehead and some chin, I think it's come out fairly realistic, if a little bug-eyed and Aardman-ish.

I was very lucky to attend a school which offered GCSE sculpture, and I absolutely loved it. Other than, y'know, Fimo, there are very few outlets for that kind of skill. So if you've got itchy fingers, maybe it's time you had a go at making a scary cake? god help me if I try and make one for kiddies, sometime.. it would probably make them all cry!!!

What the Doily, yo?

There are some really odd crochet trends floating around the fibre world at the moment, and Crocheting covers for pebbles is definitely one of them. They sound absolutely barmy, but have you seen how frakking pretty they are? Practically for designers, I would imagine that they would be a nightmare. So I stopped imagining. I mean, really; you can't write a pattern for a pebble cover, and then ask the maker to take a day trip to a beach, and take a pebble which 'matches the stated dimensions'. Odd, very odd. These are for crocheters who are happy to freeform a little.

I must admit though, a necklace one would be nice..

Crocheted pebble covers

I keep getting wedding ideas even though it's no secret that we won't be getting hitched for a pretty long time. Firstly, I have bought the yarn to make the dress. Yes. You heard. Which might not sound like a big deal, but think about it. I need to work on it when he's not around (bad luck to see the dress before the day, obviously). I've got to design the thing, and make it over a period where I can't gain or lose any weight, which would include getting pregnant! But before any of that is even thought about, I want the date set in stone. So it's not happening for a while. That's cool though, we're 9 years together already. But I digress!!

The wedding idea was painted and crocheted stone covers as baloon weights, but that's not the best on that's hit me in the last few days. I ask you, then; why is nobody making doilies for weddings?

Crocheting my Doily on the way to my Mum's on the Easter weekend.

In the office last week, was a ball of Rico Essentials Crochet Cotton (I've just looked up that link - only 30 people have it stashed which is batty - It's something stupid like £1.90 for 260m). It was red, which isn't really my colour, but I wanted to have a play and get to know the yarn, plus it's kind of a personal tradition for me to craft something over the Easter weekend. So I rooted out a doily pattern, and got hooking. Figured I'd make it for my fella's mum, she likes red and frilly things. I'd made one before so it wasn't completely out there, the idea just suited the yarn. After three rounds I was consumed by the mesmerising construction of each round, and blasted through the yarn in 2 days. End of the story was, my doily did not get done by the end of Easter Sunday. But whatever.

Point is, they're pretty. But what is really bugging me, is how versatile they are. I say bugging simply because I don't quite understand why they are so unappreciated. After a few minutes digging around on Ravelry I found hundreds of free vintage ornamental, beautiful doily patterns that people had carefully typed out and uploaded from very old originals (not a clue how this works with copyright - mine is from 1946). My daydream would be black tablecloths with electric blue doilies over the top as a wedding centrepiece (ok, so maybe not poebbles too, that might be too much). This lady crocheted a doily pattern and modified it as she went to make it fit an umbrella. SO pretty, if slightly impractical.

Modified Doily umbrella by Liana

One of the girls in the office has announced that she is pregnant. She is really lovely, too. So after finding that my red Rico doily (above) is coming out twice the suggested size because of the thickness of thread, what is stopping us from swapping a 30-count cotton up to sock yarn, and turning it into the most decorative baby shawl anyone could possibly dream of getting? Sock yarns are mostly washable too, right? Do it, people!

...anyway so I ran out of red yarn mid-doily and now have no doily-ing to do until more arrives. Hence I have time to blog instead. Meh.

EDIT: If you're not sold by doilies (you moron, how can you not be sold!!) but still fancy trying out this fab 'crisp and clean' yarn, go superclean and make a soap cover. Great gifts for the um.. 'mature' lady in your life. I wouldn't say no, though! It would be a good exfoliant, right? ..right?

S'been a while! Knitting takes a twist

...well it has, it's been ages since I wrote a blog post updating you all with my knitting life! It's been a bit mad at my end, to be fair. I sadly said goodbye to my role as a Rowan Workshop Tutor/Consultant back in February. It was a really tough decision, I have absolutely loved my time with them, working with such posh yarns and designs which, as a customer, I'd been oogling since I was about 9 years old. Very personal to me. So goodbye, Rowan Yarns! Til we meet again, at least.

I am now, instead, a proud member of the knitting team at Woman's Weekly magazine. Which is amazing. I'm being shouldered with all sorts of exciting responsibilities, and the team are super-duper nice, I mean, really nice. Feels like I've worked there forever. Very right. So if you haven't been scouring every knitting magazine in the country for my designs, here is my favourite of my recently published ones which you might like to see! I'm really proud of this bad boy;

This is my first ever crochet design which I've had published on actual print, on real proper paper, which was featured in the February 2014 Knitting and Crochet Special by Woman's Weekly (which came out on my birthday, oddly!). I say first, there were a couple of others of mine in the same mag, you can find the details on my ravelry page. But this was a special one. This was inspired by the below image which was a promotional shot for a yarn company. Without my good old Rowan Big Wool and a knitted blackberry stitch to fall back on (the brief was for crochet, specifically), it was a tricky vision to bring to life, but I'm pleased with how it came out.

So yeah, that's a teeny snippit of what I've been up to. What I've found very peculiar, is the freedom of not being attached to any one yarn company. It's been very alien to try and pick knitting projects for my personal enjoyment, where I can use any yarn I fancy. Such phases in my life have given rise to some major yarn binging. Such as the Colinette Jitterbug binge (2007 - 2009), The Rowan Yarns Binge (2007 - 2014), The Easyknits binge (2010? - 2013), The Wollmeise Binge (2011 - 2013), and the newest one is The Namolio binge, which just kicked off this year.

Please note, that all binges only qualify as 'binges' when 30 skeins or more are acquired... yeeeeah.

So yeah, there's a lot of creativity flowing, it's lovely to have some time for the sketchbook, and incorporate social networking into my working role, as like, a thing. But also to binge a bit and have some fun, and learn a load of new things. It's lovely.

...and if you haven't seen the Namolio stuff, now is the time. She's incredible.

February is a Sardinia time of year for me.

Yeah, I have a bit of a problem with repeatedly making the same things over and over. It's always for one of two reasons, the first being a lost item (see hats post), the second being that I just love the project so much. The Kat hat by Kim Hargreaves is one of these, but I think the main perpetrator of repeated creation, is a now free Design called Sardinia by Marie Wallin. It was in a published book when I made number one, and has since been uploaded to the Rowan webpage for everyone to enjoy. No excuse then, is there?

I'm currently making number, um... 9.

I've had a couple that have come out odd sizes, colours that I didn't really like when finished, and my favourite one has lost most of it's colour I've worn it half to death. But it doesn't stop me making number 9.

Meet number one (left). The one that has been re-dyed black twice and lost all of it's sheen because I WEAR IT ALL THE TIME. I'll have to buy yarn to make a new one, it's getting ridiculous.

I really thought that two years ago, I'd reached my limit of how many Sardinia Tee shirts I could own. That is, until the new Rowan Yarns Spring Summer shades of Rowan Cotton Glacé arrived and I met Blackcurrant. It's such an incredible shade. The colour selection for a project like this is incredibly important. I mean, look closely at mine. It is not just the garment that works on it's own, but the choice of 'layer' to wear beneath it. A colour which co-ordinates easily with a selection of colours, is most practical and likely to be worn. Take for example, number four (right):

So number four is a little unloved. It's fine with black underneath, deep purple maybe, but it's just not as easy to throw on as the navy blue (number 2), mauve (number five/six) and, I'm pretty sure, WIP, number 9.

So I've gone for this new deep rich purple which I can only describe as 'navy purple', the new Cotton Glacé shade, blackcurrant. It's so rich and deep, much the same as black, but less boring than black. I guess number 10 will need to be a replacement black! I do miss it come to think of it... Looks very tatty now. Literally worn to death. Work, weekends, everywhere. But it's very versatile, that's the thing.

Just try not to be distracted by the styling in the original image. I wasn't, and haven't looked back!

Did I forget to mention that these are ridiculously quick to make? I think my record is four days... and I'm not particularly quick.