Swallowtail Shawl

The secret project is at a hiatus. I've finished the knitting and most of the finishing, but have decided it needs the addition of something else which I have yet to buy. This being the case I have started the Swallowtail Shawl from the fall issue of Interweave Knits.

This is the progress so far. Actually I've done more since I took the photo, I'm just about to start the seventh repeat of fourteen of the second chart. I'm not too sure what the yarn is that I'm using; it's something I got off ebay a while back and it's on a cone, so it's not a very portable project. Mainly I just wanted to try a proper lace project, something a bit more than just socks. (Suppose that the "I Do shrug" counts).

In the stash I have some laceweight merino and if this works out okay I may try the Icarus Shawl from the summer issue in that.

I've also been VERY BAD this week, more news on this to follow.

The secret project

continues, but alas not apace. I did take it with me on my run but was too tired to do any knitting last night, just managed to eat, speak to Ro on the 'phone and go to sleep. Tonight though I intend to get some more of it done.

I'm quite pleased with how it's turning out and will show it when it's finished (hope you're not all too disappointed!).

In the meantime I'm going to show you some pics of my new baby (no it isn't a spinning wheel, I was outbid on the one I wanted on ebay. If the person who bought the Frank Herring wheel is out there I hope you give it a good home!)

No, this is my new baby:-



aint she purty? She arrived last week new from the suppliers and I took her out for the first time this week. Took her (amongst other places) to Cheltenham racecourse to do a delivery to Nuts Cafe for the Greenbelt Festival, so have a good weekend all you Greenbelters out there, hope the weather stays (?stays?) fine for you.

I've been listening to the latest Knitting Newscast and Rhonda Bell's been talking about the new Vogue Knitting magazine. There's a section in the magazine called "Modern English".

I quote "Modern English includes highland themed sweaters with a modern appeal" Well that'll please the Scots then!!!!!

Haven't done a vast amount of knitting this weekend as I've been down at Ro's house. I've done a bit of work on my secret project but it's a slow business, involving as it does a large amount of stocking stitch.

I HAVE however been Spinning!!!! (goodness what fun). I don't know if anyone recalls that I bought a drop spindle and some roving in a kit at Woolfest and had a go at spinning with it which was a total disaster. I don't know about anyone else but I just don't feel that two hands are adequate for using a drop spindle. Every time I got the damned thing going round enough and started to draft the roving it would spin back the other way and the wool would unravel. When Ro came up she showed me how to do it properly but I still couldn't get the hang of it. The other problem that we both had was that the yarn kept breaking. Ro suggested I may find it easier to spin raw wool as it sticks together better.

So this Saturday we got out some of the raw fleece that she has living in her garage, two pairs of carders and her spinning wheel and carded up some rollags of fleece and she taught me to spin on her wheel. Now it may sound daft but it was so much easier than that bloody spindle. I will not claim that what I spun was particularly brilliant, but at least it happened and Ro thought that it wasn't half bad for a beginner! (or so she said). So now I'm a bit keen on getting a wheel (watch this space).

The rest of the weekend was spent watching rugby, almost getting struck by lightening and haring off across the county on a wild goose chase. Ro is interested in getting a Timbertops wheel. These are made in Leicestershire so we looked up the place they're from and decided to take drive over. Of course when we got to our destination it was just somebody's house not a shop , so we just drove on. On the way however we'd taken the scenic route and going along a gated road between two villages we came across this sign next to the road.

Dunno if you can read the sign but it says "Match in progress. Please wait for signal at end of over."

The road went straight through the middle of the cricket pitch.

Only in England eh?

After failing to find any spinning wheels we went into Melton Mowbray and had a late lunch at the Cafe Italia in Church Street which was delicious. Unfortunately we didn't make it to Dickinson & Morris' Ye Olde Pork Pie Shoppe before it shut (best pork pies in the world) so we will have to go back.

secret project

I'm sort of working on a secret project at the moment which I can't unveil so you'll have to bear with me.

I can tell you however that when Ro came up last weekend we went to Coldspring Mill in Cullingworth. I bought some secret yarn for my secret project as well as some cotton and a skein of what looks like Maya in shades of green. Ro bought shedloads of Noro of various varieties and some scrummy dark red mohair.

I've been strangely drawn to the idea of knitting dishcloths recently (don't ask me why, I don't use them much!), I'm intrigued by their popularity in the US. I thought they'd make good gifts as facecloths if combined with some nice smelly type stuff like SUMA handmade soaps and such.

I'd been trying to get hold of the cotton for knitting them "Sugar and cream" but it only seems to be available in the US. I was quite pleased then to see the five balls of variegated 100% cotton at Coldspring so I snapped them up and knitted my first facecloth on Saturday afternoon. It's called Grandmother's favourite dishcloth and the pattern is from the Dishcloths Boutique.

On Sunday we went for a walk round Scammonden Reservoir . I downloaded a description and map of the Walk from the Yorkshire Water website. It said that the walk was 4 miles which seemed a reasonable distance for the congenitally unfit. It also said that it was fairly flat, which when you consider that we started on the ridge above the reservoir on the far side on the first picture walked along the waterside and then ended up where the picture was taken from is just downright rubbish!!!!

Still it was a pleasant walk if a little more adventurous than I would have expected. The path sort of petered out about two thirds of the way round, there was a path but the directions led us away from it so we ended up climbing over a wall into a church yard then skidding down a hill on our bums (this isn't the hill we slid down, this is Scammonden Dam).

Good fun was had by all though and we were rewarded on our return to the carpark by the sight of an ice cream van.

(Not an ice cream van!)

Cheeky

So I managed to catch a couple of pictures of this cheeky chap who has taken a fancy to the apples on my apple tree.

He's been back most afternoons for a meal (always a different apple) along with his shyer friend who stays on the ornamental crab out of the line of sight of my living room window.

Ro and Gracie came up for the weekend and Gracie wasn't at all impressed with his forwardness.

Earrings

Cherry Tree Hill Supersock, Peacock. Left over from my Jaywalkers.














Waddya think?

bye the way this is my second post today, don't miss the earlier one which is longer and has more pictures.

My day

At the weekend I finished the second side of my Fake-a-gamo and also the twiddly bits that hang off the bottom. Now all I have to do is make the handles, line it and put it together, which shouldn't take long.

Watch this space..........

In the meantime I thought I'd show you one of our customers.

This is the Living Green Centre at Bourton-on-the-Water in the Cotswolds. I do a delivery here most weeks, which is nice as if I can manage to get there on Tuesday Bourton is a great place to park up. I didn't manage it yesterday as I had a few extra deliveries in Bristol so couldn't get back up there in time, so I was there about eight o'clock this morning.
I arrived before the Centre opened so had a bit of a stroll round the green and took some pics. It's very scenic as you can see, a very popular tourist spot, but nice and quiet at that time in the morning.
I met a rather cute little chap, who consented to have his picture taken and let me make a fuss of him. I wanted to catnap him but he drew the line at that. SHAME!

When the Centre opened I did the delivery then took a few pics of their garden which is a demonstration of how to develop a sustainable and eco friendly organic garden. When they've finished developing the place the whole building will be an example of how the same can be done with an existing building. This is quite unusual (and useful) as most eco friendly houses are new builds, but most of the housing stock isn't.

They have a shop too (which is my reason for being there) and they sell all sorts of eco gizmos, local produce and organic and fair trade stuff.

If you're in the area it's well worth a visit.

ha ha ha

My nephew in New Zealand sent me this link. Thanks Nikk.

Enjoy.

And here's my latest WIP, it's the Fake-a-Gamo from Knitlit. I saw this pattern a while back and thought it looked like a fun knit so I weighed in the other weekend with some turquoise cotton from Texere Yarns which I had in the stash.

I've finished the first half and cast on for the second. It's not nearly as complicated to knit as it looks (and the cotton is easier than I anticipated) but there are a few minor errors (I think) in the pattern which I've managed to overcome. Of course the errors may be mine rather than Kate's but anyhoo.......

I'm knitting it on an aluminium 5mm circular, not 'cos it needs a circular needle but because they're more portable and I'm finding them easier than the larger straights as they have no ends to get caught on things and they weigh less. I'm thinking glossy black dowel handles rather than the bamboos in the original, I've got some dowel left over from when I made my homemade 15mm needles.

Thank you all

For your reassuring and helpful comments on my shrug. It's growing on me now (obviously far too easily influenced)

Final Pics

Of the shrug on me. I haven't sewn the ends in yet but I will get round to it. The main problem I have with the size is I'm not sure if it's tight enough round the body, having said that if it were a normal cardi I wouldn't expect it to be too figure hugging. At first I thought the sleeves were too long as well but now I feel okay about them, I think that with the shape of them it actually looks quite nice with them long.

The fabric loosened up nicely after a quick wizz through some soapy water and rinsing. While I was knitting it it felt quite stiff, but it's actually draping quite nicely now and feels quite soft.

I knitted it in some Rowan Tweedy stuff that I got at Stowe's of Sowerby for £1-00 a skein. It took two skeins and a bit (just over 200g). Used size 4.5mm circular bamboos and a set of 4.5mm bamboo DPNs to start it off on. The pattern was dead easy to follow (once I actually read it right) and quite quick once I got down to it. I liked knitting it.

I do finished

And laid out on the spare bed blocking. It's nearly dry and I've tried it on, think it's a bit large. A picture of it on me will follow and then you can judge!

I've also started to knit me a river. Three squares completed so far from some stash that originated from the Knitting and Crochet Guild yarn mountain.
I know that it doesn't look very blue, but you can take my word for it that it is!

I'm planning some textured squares next from the blue four ply that I have left over from the blue pair of socks I knitted a while ago.

Ro's ear infection has migrated via her throat into her other ear. She's a bit sad!

Lotsa love to you Ro. keep your chin up. xxxxx

I'm sorry about this but I've just got to say it.

WHY IS IT SO HOT????????????

Really it's just NOT British. I've just got back from my run and I thought I was going to expire from heat exhaustion, this is not the sort of weather to be unloading wholefood in, or driving an (un air conditioned) truck. You can forget anything I posted a few weeks ago about how comfortable my bunk is, last night it was MUCH TOO HOT (until about 2-00am when it cooled down enough for me to consider actually getting underneath the duvet). I know that there are people, unnatural people, who think that hot weather is a GOOD THING, but I feel compelled to disagree MOST STRONGLY!

Okay, I'm glad I've got that off my chest! I've had a shower and changed into clean loose clothes, opened all the windows so that I have a breeze (of sorts) blowing through the house and I feel almost human again.

I'd like you all to think positive thoughts for Ro who has developed an ear infection which has left her in a swollen and lumpy state and a significant amount of pain. I said I'd mention her so that you can all think positive thoughts so she gets better quickly 'cos if there's one thing worse than having an ear infection it's having an ear infection and having to look after yourself and having no one to whinge at except an absent sister.

(She says that Gracie is being very sympathetic though, which is nice!).

Tra la

Finished knitting "I do" last night, just got to graft the back and block it. (think it may be a bit big!!!)

Too hot & tired to do it now, going to bed instead. maybe Wednesday evening!

I do

Latest progress on the new improved "I do" shrug. Now I know that this bears a striking resemblance to the last picture I showed you of the work in progress BUT, (and this is a bigger but than my own) the last incarnation has been frogged and this is a wholly NEW version.

The original seemed to be too tight around my upper arm (truck drivers muscles I assure you. Flab? no way!) But I had hated casting on and starting off as the needles I was using were as blunt as an EXTREMELY blunt thing. So whilst at Woolfest I purchased some bamboo DPNs with nice pointy points and a bamboo circular (ditto) in the right size and I started again.

I'm much happier with the progress I'm making now, and the needles are terrific (Susannes's Bambus).

I've also finished another teeny tiny felted tote from the Kureyon I got at Coldspring Mill. I may give it as a prize to the Friends of Beaumont Park as they've sent a flyer round asking for stuff for their gala day at the end of the month. I live near to the park and it's rather lovely and The Friends raise money towards restoring it to it's former glory.

Well, I say I've finished it. Obviously I haven't put the button or the handle on yet!!!

For more pictures of our Woolfest weekend

Go to Flickr.

Enjoy

Woolfest

I know it's a bit late but I've been totally exhausted since I got back, and then driving (phew innit bloomin' hot???) so have only just got round to it.

Well Ro came up on Thursday night so we set out bright end early (ish) on Friday morning. As we drove through Halifax I said "You've not been to Coldspring Mill have you?". She replied in the negative, so we took a small detour (about a mile) and I introduced her to the bargains that were to be had there. We decided to start the weekend as we intended to go on and splashed out on some Noro that they had, some lovely Kureyon (£2.95 per ball) for Ro in green and a GORGEOUS berry shaded ball
and two balls of Kureyon in shades of blue for me and five of skeins of Kabuto in a fiery orangey red (£2.50 per skein) which is a mix of wool silk alpaca and cashmere. We both want to make teeny tiny felted totes from the Kureyon 'cos the one I gave away was so LOVELY, and I fancy a simple T shirt or vest top in the Kabuto.

Having got into the spirit of the weekend we continued on our way. We stopped in Kirkby Lonsdale for lunch and a bit of a wander round then continued on our way taking a detour via Windermere to visit the Lakeland Plastics shop. The building is very spectacular and has a grass roof but we decided that we were about twenty years too young to fully appreciate their wares if the rest of the punters were anything to go by (sorry to any Lakeland Plastics shoppers out there!).

We arrived at our hotel (ashamed to say we never even CONSIDERED camping, last time I camped I was at college. I went to a motorcycle rally in February in County Durham with the college motorcycle club and it SNOWED. I have never been more cold wet and miserable in my life!).

The hotel looks FAR posher than it actually was, but it was pretty nice. We didn't risk eating there though (candied kumquats as part of a main course? I think NOT!). We went to Whitehaven and found a place on the Waterfront called (unsurprisingly) The Waterfront where we had a very nice meal (sorry Ro has the pictures of that, the place not the food, that would be too weird).

Saturday we did Woolfest (okay I know, this is the bit you've been waiting for). We started off badly by going to the wrong place (The sheep and wool centre) which is just over the road from the right place. Couldn't work out why there was no-one there. Then we twigged and went to the right place. That was more like it, hundreds of eager textile addicts eager to get through the doors. (Alas, no pictures of this as by then I was a little overexcited). I spotted Purlpower in the queue but once inside had to rush off to the loo but was determined to catch up with her later.

Ro and I were VERY well organised, deciding that we'd do the rounds, spot what we wanted and go back at the end to do our shopping. This way we wouldn't have to lug loads of stuff round with us. Unfortunately the flaw in this system revealed itself when we came to "going back to buy stuff" as we knew what we wanted to buy, but couldn't remember where we'd seen it. This meant that we had to go all round a second time trying to find the right stalls!!!!!

That being said I didn't take many pictures of the actual stalls. I have pictures of the various sheep and some great ones of a woman shearing a sheep for the first time with some help from a professional shearer (also a woman). I've never seen two women playing Twister with a sheep, but I would imagine that there are strong similarities!

For some reason the largest contingent of men at the festival appeared to be at the sheep shearing demonstration. Can't understand why, must be all that bending over!

Everyone at the show as so keen to talk about what they were up to and why they were there, which was really nice.

Ro bought a sheepskin from a woman who had shetland sheep and it was the most beautiful caramel colour. The variety of shades of wool are incredible as we saw on the stand devoted to natural coloured wool from various types of sheep (I can't remember what the stand was called).

I actually bought very little yarn, though I did buy some slubby cotton/linen which caught my eye. I quite liked the lilac colour but Ro said she "liked me in stronger colours" so I bought the red. It wasn't till I got back to the hotel that I realised how similar it was to the "Kabuto" I'd bought on Friday. Never mind, can't have too much of a good thing, and it's completely different fibre if a scarily similar colour. I did get a drop spindle though, after agonising over which sort to get 'cos there were so many beautiful ones there made out of the most lovely types of wood, finally decided to be pragmatic and get a complete kit with a bog standard (I say that but it's not made of ply wood and it's hand turned) spindle, some blue faced leicester and black welsh mountain tops and most importantly INSTRUCTIONS!

I also bought a hand dying starter kit (deluxe version) 'cos I enjoyed the kool aid dying so much. Again I was torn between going for Procion dyes or natural dyes. I love the idea of natural dyes and I was so impressed with the variety of colour possible with them, but I felt in the end that it would be better to start with something simple and then I can branch out into natural dying if I really take to it.

I DID manage to catch Purlpower and her friend Emily, who was resting at the time so unable to escape and she showed me the stuff she'd bought (couldn't find where you got that Lopi so had to come home without it, never mind). And I accosted Woolywormhead too but failed to spot Akrylic though I looked out for her Britknitcast T shirt.

I was going to buy some banana fibre from knitting4fun, but decided that I'd wait and get some later (they have a web site and free postage on orders over a certain weight so I can get it any time). I know, restraint or what? I'm afraid I haven't taken pictures of my purchases as most of them are just brown paper bags with kits in so aren't very exciting to look at. I'm making up for it with pictures of other stuff from the weekend.

Ro and I were both impressed to pass through this village on the way from our hotel to Cockermouth and had to take a picture of Rose next to the sign.

We also felt that we should take Rose to the seaside as she's never been before, so we took her to Allonby Bay and let her look at Scotland. She enjoyed that!

We came back on Sunday via Grassmere and Settle (the first for coffee, the second for lunch). It was a lovely weekend and I want to go again next year but I'd like to spend longer up there and see other stuff too.

I'm afraid I still have no progress to report on my "I do" shrug, despite dragging it all round the country for the past several weeks (did I mention it's going to Cumbria this weekend?). I think this is partly because I think the sleeves are a bit tight and I fear I may have to frog it and start again but I had such a hell of a time with the needles to begin with (blunt!!!) that I can't face it.

Soooooooo I may need to buy some more needles in that size. I nearly got a set of Denise interchangeable needles the other week from the Woolyworkshop, but bottled out at the last minute, figuring that if I'm going to Woolfest (did I mention that I'm going to Woolfest?) I should wait and buy something that I've actually seen and held and can compare to what I have now. Unfortunately I got an email from Gill at Woolyworkshop to say that she'd received an order but no payment and had there been a problem and would I like her to save the goods for me anyway. I had to send a grovelling apology for wasting her time. Oooops!

So I'm a bereft knitter at present, no WIP to speak of 'cos I don't want to start something else major until I've sorted this one out (I was actually enjoying knitting the shrug, and I do like the way that it looks as well and I love the yarn so I'm sure that I will finish it).

Other news is that I went down to Ro's at the weekend and my niece has come over from New Zealand and we went to visit my other sister's cattle after lunch on Sunday whilst the males of the species were watching the football (yawn). So here are some pics of them (the cattle not the chaps).
This is Treasure the bull; he's a Blonde Aquitaine I think, with his current lady of choice, Panda.
And here are some more of the ladies with their offspring. Lovely! There are several more but I couldn't get them all in one shot.

I also thought that I'd post a picture of the bunk in my truck so you can see where I sleep on a Tuesday night. It's very very comfortable and I sleep very well in it.

I also went back to Stafford Services to get picture of the birds for you as promised in a previous post but I was forced to beat a retreat when they started trying to eat me! I kid you not, I didn't even have any food but they all gathered round begging anyway and whilst I was pointing out to them that I only had a cup of coffee and they wouldn't like it two of them snuck round behind me and started pecking the heels of my boots! And I thought bird flu was the worst we had to fear from them, I tell you it's "The Birds" all over again!

See you at Woolfest then (I did say I was going didn't I?)

WOW

I just had to put this link up as I sent a'photo in.

WOW!

Impressive or what?

Look out Woolfest

We're coming!

OOOhh I'm all excited, in a fit of spontenaity I rang Ro and asked her if she fancied Woolfest this year and she said yes. So I've managed to book a hotel for a couple of nights (and let me tell you that wasn't easy. "there's an event on that weekend in Cockermouth!")

So we're coming too!

I actually have a friend who lives near Maryport so I should probably have rung her and said I'm coming to stay but it seemed a bit cheeky!

Ten green bottles......

Okay so there's only four and they're brown, but hey I do my best with the limited resources available to me.

Meet our newest (and probably most interesting so far) brand lines. Hot off the press (or out of the brewery) these arrived at work today. Our own range of organic beer locally brewed in the Calder valley.

I haven't tried them yet, but you can bet that I'm planning to now that I've photographed them.

Cheers!

No knitting

I'm ashamed to admit that there has been NO PROGRESS AT ALL on the knitting since I last posted on SATURDAY.

Not a single stitch.

So I'm posting some pictures of Upton-On-Severn instead.

This is where I parked up last night, and what a beautiful evening it was. You wouldn't believe that a mere two hours or so earlier I'd hardly been able to see more than a couple of feet in front of the windscreen as I drove up the M5 out of Bristol.

Anyhow, there's a very nice car park as you can see (very reasonable £4.60 to park your truck overnight and a nice clean toilet block which you can't see 'cos it's behind the blue truck and the yellow truck). You will need your ear plugs as these boys pull out at the oddest times of the morning. I set my alarm for seven o'clock (yup, got to lie in today) and they'd all gone!

Took a stroll over the road and under the bridge to the Plough where I got a meal of pan seared tuna on a bed of salad with a side order of chips. Which was very tasty (if a bit too large, think the chips may have been an order too far).

Then strolled back to settle down for the night.

It would be nice to say that I get to look round the places that I park up, but I have to admit that I'm usually too tired to do more than wash and eat.

I did walk up into the town this morning to find an early morning cafe where I could get my thermos filled with hot water (and it would have been rude not to buy something so I forced myself to a bacon sarnie, on white bread half an inch thick, with ketchup! YUM!)

They're having a Jazz festival in Upton-On-Severn on the weekend of 24th & 25th June so if Jazz is your bag and you're in the area toddle on down there. it's a very nice little town. (Don't know if there's a wool shop though!)

On the way back up today I stopped at Stafford services on the M6 (northbound). It's great they have a BIG pond there with ducks and geese and moorhens. There was even a heron flew in whilst I was there.

I actually saw a goose being goosed. He was quietly sitting in the shallow water preening and a duck swam up behind him and poked him in the behind with her beak. He reacted in exactly the way a person would if it had been done to them. It was so funny! There were loads of gooselets too. All fluffy still 'though quite large. And they had these HUGE feet that they were having a bit of trouble keeping under control. Ace.

Unfortunately I'd left the camera in the truck and couldn't be arsed to walk back to the car park and get it, so no goose pics. Maybe next time.

Sorry there's no knitting.

Progress

Well, decision made and this is progress so far. Thanks for your help and advice Purlpower and Anne. Finally decided to go for the green Rowan Tweedy type stuff I bought from the place in Sowerby I mentioned in a previous post.

Seems to be knitting up quite quickly, the gauge is correct for the number of stitches, but about two rows more to 15cms than specified in the pattern. I don't think this will be too much of a problem.

I'm pleased with it so far, though the needles were a bit of a pain to start with. My 4.5mm DPNs are very very blunt and I had trouble with the purl three togethers and such. (I tend to start off knitting in the round by casting the required number of stitches onto one needle then knitting them off onto three, I find I'm less likely to get the knitting twisted then. I tried doing this straight onto the circular to start with and got in a horrible mess.) Once I'd got past the beginning and onto the circular it wasn't quite so bad, though even that is not as pointy as I'd like. I'm trying to keep it quite loose so that it's easier to get the needles through the stitches.

Why is it that however many needles you have you never have quite the right ones for a new project. I suspect the problem is that I've been buying cheap needles because that's what it's easy to get hold of, but I've discovered as I've progressed that I prefer certain types and I only have a few sets of those. I like bamboos as they seem to have pointier tips, but not cheap ones as they tend to drag the yarn. I'm also a bit worried that bamboos may go a bit blunter over time as they're not as hard as aluminium needles. Some alunimium ones seem to be sharper than others. I'll just have to keep an eye out and gather information as I go along.

oh my

http://www.wwkipday.com/

it's tomorrow and I haven't planned anything. Haven't even really got anything on the needles at the moment.

I've been wanting to knit a lacey cardi for a while but can't seem to find the pattern that I want. I'm sort of considering "I do" from Knitty Spring05 . But I'm not sure.
I have some yarn that knits to the same gauge but has slightly less mileage on the ball and it seems a bit heavy for the pattern, but it may work out. I'd be knitting it in a grey/green colourway so it would be less bridal looking.

Can't decide, may have to buy some more yarn?

Hmm perhaps not.

More than two weeks

To complete the first one, less than two days to complete the second. Typical.
A pair of Pomatomi (?) knitted in Opal home Kool Aid Dyed sock wool on 2.5mm Inox bamboo DPNs.

Despite going down from size 2.75mm DPNs as specified in the pattern to 2.5mms the socks are still a bit baggier than I'd like. If I did this pattern again (and now I've finally got the hang of it it seems a shame not to), I'd probably go down to 2.25 or even 2mm needles.

I like the pattern though and I'm quite tempted by Craftaholic's mermaid gloves , which she adapted from the Knitty pattern.

Whew!

ha ha, I've finished a Pomatomus at long last. Only one more to go.

I never realised that this was going to be quite such a long term project. However I'm not disheartened (not very anyway) and have already started the second one.

Anyone want to buy a loom?

Today I took a trip to Stow's of Sowerby. Mr Stowe (Ken I believe, or possibly Keith) claims to have the largest weaving concern in Sowerby but admits that this is 'cos it's the only one left. Unfortunately he's planning to retire, so there will no longer be a working mill in Sowerby Village. He'd like to sell his loom and allied equipment but says that the only people who have the skills nowadays are the same age as him or older.

I was put on to him by a friend at work whose sister told him about a place that sold cheap knitting wool and thanks to my knitting in public (or at least at work) Johnny T. knew that I am a keen knitter. There, you see if people know that you knit they tell you stuff like this. If you keep it a secret think of the opportunities that could be passing you by. Unfortunately I forgot to take my camera so didn't take picture of the weaving shed or the loom or the warping machine. But they were most impressive.

Also impressive was the load of knitting wool that he had for sale. I've no idea where he got it from. It's mostly Rowan and another make which I hadn't heard of before and I've subsequently forgotten (I'd make a great reporter wouldn't I?!?). All the wool was for sale for at £1.00 per 100 grams. Mostly skeins but a few cones (no balls).

I bought (yes you knew that it was coming didn't you?) the following:

The grey stuff at the back is Cashgora and feels lovely and soft although googling has revealed that Cashgora is an inferior type of cashmere. Feels pretty good to me, and at £1.00 a skein I'm not complaining. I have nine skeins of that. (I can never remember the approximate amounts of yarn needed to make a garment so I tend to go a bit overboard).

The Green looks like standard Rowan Tweedy type double knit and I've got four skeins of that. I love that colour.

The fawn and beige type stuff at the front is slightly stringy in texture and I would say has an element of linen or something similar in it and I've got five skeins of that (though I think two skeins are probably 50 grams not 100 grams) in various shades. Thought it would make a nice vest type top.

He also has some stuff that he's woven for sale; floor rugs, car rugs, picnic blankets, some rather nice jackets (though they were all in large sizes). If you're pootling around West Yorkshire in search of a yarny bargain give him a visit but you'd better get a shake on 'cos I don't know how long he'll be there for before he retires.