Who says a martini can't solve problems?

The idea for the Martini Cowl began as an exercise in problem solving. What if you don't know how much yarn you've got, especially if it's a bit of handspun or a charity shop buy which you're never going to be able to match? It might be beautiful but unless you actually measure the yardage, will you ever have the courage to start on a pattern which you might not be able to finish?

So I came up with a solution - a cowl where, once you've decided what needles to use and how many stitches to cast on, you can pretty much just keep going until you run out of yarn.

I needed both to experiment with what yarns worked and demonstrate how different versions of the pattern might look, so I started with a version in a sock/fingering weight yarn which I'd bought at Unravel, Shearer Girl Lustrous Sock in Antique Rose:

This made for a light, smokeringy type thing, which I've been wearing pretty much constantly since I finished it.

To show the versatility of the pattern, I then knitted it in Aran weight:

This was it works as an infinity scarf which can be twisted twice around the neck:

(The photos are part of the Clare Suffolk photo sesh).

The Martini name comes from the old ad - any time, any place, anywhere - this is any yarn, any length, any size!

So, the pattern is a great knitter's problem solver. What to do with spare bits of stash, and how to knit up quick Christmas presents with it.

What I hadn't appreciated from the beginning was that it might be helping to solve more serious problems. I decided to donate the pattern to p/hop, a knitters' project which raises money for Medicins sans Frontieres (MSF)- that's "Doctors without Borders". Every knitter who downloads the pattern is asked to make a donation to the charity. The same week the pattern came out, the typhoon hit the Philippines and MSF were on the front line in providing medical help to thousands of people facing disaster. So this pattern really is a win, win, win - use up your stash, make a gift for yourself or a friend, and maybe make a huge difference to someone in desperate straits.

Follow the links above to find out more about p/hop & MSF and to download the pattern or just make a donation.

Putting the Treat into Retreat

I've just got back from spending the weekend at the first Rocking Kitchen (this is the amalgamation of http://www.rockandpurl.com/ and http://joeliskitchen.com/ - actually not two websites but two fine people, Ruth and Joeli, respectively current and former tech editors at Knit Now magazine) designers' retreat, in Brighouse in West Yorkshire.

Now I will be honest here, I was thrilled and actually rather privileged to be invited, but somewhat apprehensive about the weekend. Firstly, I'm not someone who ever imagined herself going on something which calls itself a retreat (I had images of some kind of combination of yoga, vitamin water and primal scream therapy). Secondly, I'm well known for generally avoiding anything which involves spending time in large groups of women - I had both a stag and a hen do (and there was at least one man on the hen night). Thirdly, I had only actually met one of the people who was going to be there (and she I knew would have to leave early). Fourthly, the whole set up sounded rather like the plot of an episode of Midsomer Murders. I was carefully scanning the attendance list to make sure Joyce Barnaby had not found her way onto it.

On the plus side, going to Yorkshire is always a pleasure and never a chore, I knew everyone else would be knitters (and therefore a) predisposed to be decent types and b) there would always be something to talk about), and Joyce's named failed to show up in the Rav discussion group. Then as the day drew near, rumours began to circulate that Ruth, Joeli and Knit Now's Kate had been compiling retreat goodie bags of epic proportions, and also that we were to be joined by a special mystery celebrity guest. (Her identity being less of a mystery (but still special) after Woolly Wormhead herself posted in the group to say it was her). This was on top of them organising accommodation, catering, logistics etc for everyone.

I drove up from London with another retreatee (http://www.porpoisefur.com/ also not actually a website but a person), which was a good move as it meant we both felt like we knew someone by the time we arrived. In fact I think we felt like we had been through a deeply traumatic bounding experience together, this being the spectacular Friday night traffic jam which meant the last 6 miles took over an hour to cover. On arrival, there was the somewhat disconcerting experience of learning the actual names of people one only knew by Twitter/Rav handles, though I admit I still kept calling Woolly Wormhead Woolly. The goodie bags were being compiled in a Secret Room but we were shown around the rest of the enormous Victorian pile where we were staying and, after a few glasses of wine, it became easier to remember people's real names, helped by the fact that many were wearing their own sock patterns, and actually rather relaxing to be in company where a discussion about, for instance, the pilling propensity or otherwise of fibre was regarded not only as not weird but even engaging. It was also good to chat to Kate from Knit Now about the awesomeness of Artesano yarns and the rubbishness of Luton, both topics dear to my heart.

Any question about how the weekend was to be spent was answered when the bounty was revealed. Clearly we could happily spend the next two days poking yarn. There was enough to insulate a small housing estate. As well as a take home stash of sufficient size I have had to hide it from my husband, there was a huge pile of yarn for us to try out and swatch (and needles from Chiagoo and Hiya Hiya for us to try it out with).

When the swatching, poking, and squishing got too much, Woolly Wormhead turned out to have brought all the hats in the world and was happy for us to try them on and give us each basically a personal hat styling session (we did all participate in giving each other advice on this) as to what style suited us (during the course of which it was agreed that Runway and Camden rather helpfully suit everyone). Then we swatched a bit more. People span. And do you know what, it turned out we all got on rather well.

I did manage to leave the house at one point for a walk, and we discovered that there was a miniature railway opposite. It is just as well my husband didn't know this beforehand as I think he would have banned me from going in absolute certainty that I would be murdered in a cosy Sunday night TV drama.

Yarn highlights:

Yarns I had been wanting to try for ages: Island Wool Snaelden; Blacker Yarns Falkland Island Wool.

Yarns I'd never heard of and am glad I got to try: Kettle Yarn Co; Cascade Yarns Souk.

Yarn I am really looking forward to working out something fab to do with: West Yorkshire Spinners BFL; Dirty Water Dye Works Paula; Space Cadet mini skeins; Manos del Uruguay Serena; Milla Mia Naturally Soft Merino; Lorna's Laces Sportmate.

Yarns I already have a plan for: Manos del Uruguay Wool Classica; Araucania Maipo.

On our final morning there was a thick frost - I'd forgotten what Yorkshire weather can do - but the nightmare traffic jam had cleared and I headed back to London, this time with three of us and a car bursting at the seams with yarn. It would have made an interesting "shed load" on  the M1.

I just had time, prior to hiding everything from my husband, to review what I had, and get the cat to model some: 

 

Here Bluey is modelling Malabrigo Laceweight.

I'll be blogging again to let you know what exciting designs I come up with, and also very soon to tell you more about my Martini Cowl which has just been released for p/hop to raise much needed funds for Medicins sans Frontieres.

Yarn company designs - classic & by me.

Like most UK knitters, I made sure to watch The Golden Age of Knitting last Wednesday on BBC4. Which was great, but so inadequate- basically the whole history of knitting, including machine knitting, in the 20th century, in one hour. It made me think how much the way you get hold of your knitting patterns has change.

I don't actually remember being taught to knit - though I do remember not being able to cast on and having to get someone else to cast on my teddys' oddment scarves (I could always cast off) - which I guess must mean I learned in the 70s - but most of my active childhood knitting memories are of the 80s. Then, the only real source of patterns was yarn companies - Sirdar, Wendy, Patons etc - or "womens" magazines  - Women's Own or my granny's People's Friend (I still have her pink plastic free People's Friend crochet hooks). In fact I'm pretty sure the Women's Own must have been granny's as well. We had an eclectic collection of patterns culled from both grannies, and from the LYS in Long Eaton where I used to dive in the bargain bins for cheap wool. I was, and I think remain, the only knitting granddaughter, which is why I ended up with all of them - and still have many of them.

So we had some very 80s yarn company patterns:

 

A typical example, in glorious 80s chenille (although chenille is now back, back, BACK, as Smash Hits would say, sticking with the 80s theme).

 

We also had some older yarn company patterns:

 





This is I think a particularly splendid example, from good old Sirdar, the company who basically taught me to knit - I was knitting Sirdar long before I got into Ravelry, knitting magazines or even Rowan. It's obviously my Luton Gran (i.e. paternal)'s pattern as it has the stamp from her LYS in Luton - Angelique, in Riddy Lane - I would imagine long gone. This is quite a good way of dating patterns as my family moved a lot - so I can date a pattern to within a few years according to whether it's stamped Bristol, Bradford or Long Eaton.

However some of my favourites in the collection are the magazine patterns, which they always used to give a bit of "lifestyle" styling, and would produce little themed pattern books, like this:

This one is quite classy as it seems to have been in combination with the Wool marketing board - but these were the days when non-natural fibres were in, so you also got leaflets advertising the joys of, for instance, Bri-Nylon:

 



I've actually always been rather fond of this one! The Wool book is very much of its time, so you get this...

This is the "young and gay" design, so here is "poised and elegant", if you're interested:

I could actually sit around doing this all day (I have LOTS more), but I have samples to finish so I can't. What this is sort of leading me onto is how thrilling it is to be designing for a yarn company - even if I can't say my patterns quite reach the giddy heights of this collection. The Artesano Blue Faced Blend pattern book is out now and has 3 of my accessories and I've been asked to design for them again in a new yarn (That's the sample I'm working on now and it is not giving anything away to tell you the yarn is so gorgeous I am going to have trouble parting with this sample).

This is the Marryat Hat which I've designed for the book - very pleased that Jenny from Artesano is knitting a version of this to send out to someone serving in Afghanistan - apparantly the rib design is ideal under-helmet wear! The pattern is currently free to try on Ravelry & Jenny is going to send any hats anyone else wants to knit for the Forces out to Afghanistan - get in touch with her (ArtesanoYarnsLtd on Rav or @artesanojen on Twitter) if you would like to help out.

The theme for the book was classic British family designs so I when naming my patterns I went for authors of classic British childrens' classics. Frederick Marryat wrote Children of the New Forest and various other books, often with a naval theme - e.g. Mr Midshipman Easy - based on his own experiences in the Navy - the precursor of C.S. Forester, Patrick O'Brien etc. The Forces connection is quite appropriate for Jenny's hats!

I also have Nesbit mitts:

Named after Edith Nesbit,  best known as the author of the Railway Children but who wrote loads of terrific books of which The Pheonix & the Carpet is probably my favourite.

My final choice was John Masefield, who was Poet Laureate, writing virtually the only poem anyone was called on to learn by heart when I was at school ("Quinquereme from Ninevah..." etc), and also one of the most fabulous children's fantasy books The Box of Delights.

It was great to be able to celebrate these authors with the names and hopefully any children who get these patterns knitted for them will go out and have adventures in them!

Finding locations & losing samples...

I've been busily pattern testing & have all sorts of exciting new launches & relaunches in the pipeline - plus the publication of Artesano's Blue Faced Blend pattern book in which I have 3 accessory patterns (very excited) - I'll blog about that in due course (but you can have a look on Rav if you want a sneaky peek - http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/sources/artesano-british-blue-faced-blend-book-1).

They have got lovely pics with models who are not me - one of the problems with self publishing is a) you have to do all your own pics and b) that means it's usually muggins in the photos.

All this activity required some new photos so I dragged my husband around the terribly pictureskew town of Clare in Suffolk at the weekend and made him take pictures of me basically poncing about in hand knits. This included some slightly dangerous photography on a single lane bridge, and some safer stuff in Clare Country Park (see below). Most of this was for patterns still in testing, but also included the Santiago Cowl which has now been tested and relaunched. It looks good from both sides which is very helpful as it means I can take pics from the BACK...

Way more flattering!

In the meantime, my Montserrat curvy-size top has now finished its test and would be ready to relaunch if only I could find my original sample... I want to frog & reknit the top part in line with the revised tested pattern (and take new pics) but my house is completely upside down due to having the builders in doing our loft conversion and I'm at a loss as to where it's got to...

African adventures knitted up...

Well I'm so happy that today I have finalised all of those African patterns and published my very first e-book, Waters of Africa.

I've been getting the patterns tested through the Free Pattern Testers group on Ravelry & can recommend it. They've had lots of good ideas & picked up mistakes! I'm now using the group to test all of my currently available paid-for patterns (& more mistakes are emerging...) so I am thoroughly converted to pattern testing. It's also nice to have my testers being generally very complimentary about the patterns...

Anyway, back to the patterns. The book probably started life as a concept with the Luangwa Valley Water Carrier. Walking is always a big part of any Zambian safari (and this year's was our 5th trip to Zambia & the Luangwa Valley), and I wanted to knit something to carry my water bottle in, that would spread the weight over both shoulders, as I've been suffering a bit from back & shoulder problems.

As you can see, walking in Zambia gets you pretty close to the wildlife:

I went for African bush colours and got the design from one of the few man-made things you regularly come across in the Zambian bush, a basketweave fish trap:

And after some fiddling around with eyelets & I cord, was very happy with the result, which got used in Zambia and has since been to Wimbledon, Lord's etc. It also looks like a squid when empty, always a bonus.

So, that got me thinking. If I could knit one bit of Africa, how about others? I already had a skein of the most spectacular multicoloured Indian silk yarn which I didn't know what to do with. It looked like tropical fish, swimming in the shallows. I also had some lovely beads I'd picked up at Unravel, with no real purpose. And that put me onto the next part of our trip, Lake Malawi and its colourful cichlids. I designed a very plain scarf, with picot beads all around, to represent the fishes:

Lake Malawi is called the Lake of Stars, because at night the fishermen go out in tiny boats, each with a light, and it looks as if the lake is studded with golden stars. (I also associated it with stars, because Pumulani Lodge, where we stay, has an enormous telescope which you can use.) More beads - and more gorgeous yarn. The Lake of Stars stole has a beaded picot cast on and wavy eyelet edging, for the lake, with beads around the edge for the villages. Then in the middle are scattered little boat-shaped eyelet patterns, each with its corresponding bead/star.

 

 

The photo illustrates the ideal blocking process - soak in the crystal clear waters of Lake Malawi, and leave to dry on a rock...

 

Some of my test knitters came up with some particularly inspired combinations of beads and yarn - I am really looking forward to seeing how this pattern develops!

 

The last pattern was inspired by probably the most famous bit of water in the area - the Victoria Falls, on the border between Zambia & Zimbabwe, known far more poetically to the locals as Mosi-oa-Tunya. the Smoke that Thunders. It's so important to Zambia they even named their beer after it:

 

 

 

Knitting a waterfall is quite a common thing for knitters - I've seen lots of waterfall shrugs and the like - but I wanted to create the impression of the changing water down the falls - so the top of the Mosi-oa-Tunya cowl is a pointed edge and the decreases flatten out to the froth of the gorge. Like the Lake of Stars stole, it's knitted in a bluey-green shade of Sparkleduck Galaxy, which is a sparkly sock yarn and was just perfect for these projects (in fact, I'm to be found raving about it in issue 24 of Knit Now magazine, so much did I love it).

 

 

 

 





One of my testers did one in a self-striping yarn which was also pretty effective.

So there we have it. The pricing was a bit tricky - but in the end I decided to price each pattern the same, and with the same amount (50p) going to charity - and the e-book works out as cheaper than 3 patterns, with the same amount (50p per pattern or £2 for the whole book) going to charity. I'd really like to get enough to sponsor a child through Project Luangwa - this is an educational charity which was set up by Robin Pope Safaris, the company whose lodges we stayed at on our last trip.

County Championship

Even a brief glance at my knitting patterns will tell you that Britain is a major source of inspiration for me! Albeit I will be getting rather more exotic at the end of this month when all my African patterns should be being released. Anyone who knows me will not be surprised that there are a lot of Suffolk patterns, since I spend a lot of time there and, as the location of both proposal and (first) honeymoon, it has a special place in my heart (second honeymoon was Zambia with, I hasten to add, same husband). Yorkshire also features, understandably since I am Bradford-born and proud of it (aye, lad, God's own county, my mother & a stick of rhubarb, etc etc). This month a rather more left-field (for me) county is providing the inspiration, Somerset, with the publication of my Glastonbury Tor hat in Knit Now.

I had seen Glastonbury Tor some years ago when I went to Somerset for my friend Sarah's wedding. I was bridesmaid, so came down a couple of days earlier than my boyfriend (now husband; see above) and was a very new driver who had managed to purloin a pool car from work. The fear and excitement of the freedom of the road (read: being tailgated by furious lorry drivers on country lanes) stays with me. I spent my spare day visiting two places I really wanted to see - Glastonbury Abbey and Wells Cathedral. I am a sucker for a good cathedral, and Wells is one of the best. I was also rather geekily excited about Glastonbury Abbey due to my background as a dark-age history student (i.e. I studied the dark ages, not in the dark ages, although modern students who wonder how we managed without mobile phones or email probably think it was). Glastonbury was the home of St. Dunstan, one of my favourite saints (if you study the dark ages, you spend quite a lot of time on saints; technically Dunstan's prob a bit past dark ages). He's one of those people who you read about in the various sources and feels like a real person, even though over a thousand years has passed.

At the time, I wasn't really knitting, so the pattern potential of these two places didn't strike home; but it was thrust upon me (not literally) watching last year's Olympic opening ceremony. Whether it was the juxtaposition of Danny Boyle's vision of Glastonbury Tor with sheep that did it, I don't know, but immediately I was thinking was what a fantastic hat it would make.

 

I spent some months experimenting; and then I saw the Designer Challenge for issue 24 of Knit Now and there before me was the perfect yarn for the job. Erika Knight's Vintage Wool has the squishy texture of a slightly mossy lawn and, nearly as importantly, it's proudly British.

Beautifully photographed as always in Knit Now:

(c) Practical Publishing

And I haven't forgotten Wells Cathedral...

Post Samples, Post Wimbledon...

I've been actually literally too busy to blog for the last 2 weeks! Partly this has been due to actual work. Partly this has been due to Wimbledon (normally would be able to combine blogging & Wimbledon, but my physio has banned me from using my laptop on my lap - hence no blogging in front of TV). Mostly it's been due to 2 knitting-design-related matters - firstly, getting all my patterns tested for Waters of Africa using the Free Pattern Testers group which is brilliant but takes up a little time, and secondly knitting lots of lovely accessory samples for a lovely yarn company in a lovely yarn. More will follow on that...

It's also now preserving season, hence that was just a break to decant redcurrant jelly. I inherited an extra bit of allotment last year and it looks like there may be a LOT of redcurrant jelly - this is only a portion of the fruit on the bushes:

 

 

All of which means I haven't yet blogged about issue 23 of Knit Now magazine, which features lots of picnic-related patterns (finally we have the weather to picnic) including my Aldeburgh tee. It would be nice to say that this was due to a carefully-thought out concept, but actually I found a swatch I had no recollection of knitting in my swatch bag. I thought, "That's pretty!" and reknitted it to make sure I could work out how I'd done it, and sent it off as an idea. Obviously Kate at Knit Now thought the same, and here we have a gorgeous summery top, bee-you-ti-fully photographed:

 

(c) Practical Publishing 2013

There is also a rather more close up pic in the magazine itself, which makes me a bit nervous, as it means my seaming is on display to the world at large :-(.

Very pleased to be celebrating another charming corner of Suffolk with this pattern's title.



Sore feet & free pattern review

Slightly random blog - firstly the good news that Alex has done her walk, albeit she didn't quite make the end due to her feet looking like this:

Which is excusable. She has already signed up for next year, so Bob's Beanie will continue to be on sale to fund next year's trek...

Rather foolishly, I'm considering joining her. However before I do anything rash I'm seeing the podiatrist on Saturday (I have "foot issues") to see if this is simply crazy or actually suicidal.

I've also been reviewing some of my free pattern offerings. Basically when I started designing I was just doing it for fun and hadn't imagined a point where I would be having patterns published or be worrying about free patterns affecting my "brand". However it's now got to the point where I don't think having interesting but untested patterns out there is a good idea, and I've also been reading some interesting views from other designers about pattern pricing, so what's going to happen is this:

I will get all of my paid patterns (both existing & patterns moving from free to paid) tested. I've been using the Free Pattern Testers group on Ravelry to test patterns for the new e-book & so far have been pretty pleased with it, albeit I know some users have had problems with the strict group rules - haven't violated any yet! So as soon as the current tests start coming to an end I'll be getting my existing paid patterns tested.

I've already decided to withdraw Monserrat from free download at the end of June & will be considering whether the various problems with this pattern are solvable.

On 30th July (Not 31st as this is my wedding anniversary, so I may have to do something other than faff about on Ravelry!) I'll withdraw Asparagus Lace Scarf, Black Beacon Hat, Black Beacon Scarf, Cavendish, Pendleton and Sparrow Grass as free downloads. These will all be revised if appropriate & tested then re-released as paid patterns.

Bantam's Beanie, Barbara, Beaujolais, Dorothy bag, Pandora and Radcliffe Camera Bag will remain as free downloads.

So, if you would like to knit any of these & are happy to knit from an untested pattern, make sure you download it by the deadline - or alternatively, keep checking Free Pattern Testers on Rav & sign up to test!

African adventures...

I am now having a bit of a readjustment to normal life, London, technology etc, after a wonderful 2 weeks in Zambia & Malawi. I am a self-confessed safari addict & we are now finding ourselves going to more and more obscure destinations in search of somewhere properly remote. We certainly found it this time, at Liuwa Plain National Park, where the 6 guests (including us) at our lodge were the only tourists in the entire National Park. To give you an idea, you fly to Lusaka, Zambia; then take a small plane 2 hours to Kalabo, Zambia; then you drive through the bush for another couple of hours to get to where you're staying.

This is Kalabo airstrip. There are a group of dedicated local kids who turn up to watch their 4 flights a week, about 2 months a year! The park is not accessible by road during much of the wet season and the only realistic way to visit during the dry season is to do what we did and go with Robin Pope safaris who organise a few trips each year, basically building a tented lodge on a site which otherwise isn't used and taking it down again.

Had some fantastic wildlife sightings, including 3 cheetah sisters (cheetah are really rare in Zambia) taking down a wildebeest and fighting the hyenas off; hyenas also seemed rather keen to join us for sundowners:

 



Our guide Kanga assured us this was nothing to worry about & he was right. Fortunately they were just curious and can be almost cute!

I'll probably be blogging a bit more about this trip - we also went to South Luangwa National Park (an old favourite) and spent a few days on Lake Malawi, all in the excellent Robin Pope Safaris lodges - as I used it as an opportunity to take some photos for a teeny new accessory collection I am putting together, called Waters of Africa, with 4 patterns inspired by the lakes & rivers of Zambia & Malawi. I am getting the patterns tested through the Free Pattern Testers group on Ravelry before publication so it will prob be out sometime in August - there's a cowl, a scarf, a stole & a rather funky water bottle carrier. The latter was road-tested in South Luangwa & proved very useful! I'm also going to use the ebook as a bit of a charity fundraiser - the current plan is to see if I can raise enough to help a child from the Luangwa Valley attend school for a year.

That's for the future - for now, my good friend Alex, who has been mentioned in this blog before, will be doing her amazing 100k walk from London to Brighton on 22-23rd June, raising money for the British Heart Foundation. I'm supporting her by giving profits from sales of 3 of my patterns to the cause up until the end of June - they're Talboys Wrap, Cecily Mitts, and of course the specially-designed Bob's Beanie. The team have also put together a book of heart-healthy family recipes to support their walk - Bob's Bites. Keep your fingers crossed for good walking weather...

Random football, cricket & Eurovision thoughts.

I've been spending the last month or so thinking and designing rather than blogging - I've had an idea for a really exciting project (well, exciting for me) when sufficient inspiration suddenly struck for a 4 pattern e-book, so I've been frantically knitting samples for that while I still have the muse upon me!

I've also reached the point where rights from pattern sales have started to revert to me, and have released 2 patterns previously published in magazines for sale: Talboys Wrap and Cecily Mitts. As Alex is now nearing her100km walk for Team Bob in aid of the British Heart Foundation, 50p from each sale of both these patterns will be going towards her walk.

In the meantime, glad news this weekend was Bradford City's playoff win and promotion to League One. I didn't go to the match as we already had tickets for England v New Zealand at Lord's. "Luckily" Lord's was utterly freezing, so I was able to wear my Bantam's Beanie while desperately trying to get enough signal on my phone to find out the score. The lovely Yorkshire yarn shop Baa Ram Ewe have also just created a "Bantam" colourway for their Titus yarn, inspired by Bradford's rather distinctive strip, so I was able to celebrate with a purchase - should be arriving soon! More immediately, what better way to celebrate than a few glasses of vino and the Eurovision Song Contest. I thought Romania (my description: cross between Peter Andre and Cruella de Vil; described by England cricketer Graeme Swann on Twitter as a "eunuch vampire") and Greece (football referees in skirts pretending to be Madness with their grandad, singing "Alcohol is Free") were cruelly robbed. Although I am fairly sure the Greek entry only got through due to a Father Ted/My Lovely Horse-type decision based on lack of funds to ever host it again.

And, seriously, is there some international bribery scandal brewing as regards Azerbaijan? Votes from the most unlikely places for a deeply peculiar performance.

The dark secrets of pattern inspiration

When you're coming up with ideas for patterns - and pitching them to potential publishers - you like to pretend to yourself that it's all very arty. Nature... architecture... sculpture... literature.

But on this occasion I have to come clean and admit it. The real inspiration for my Whitefriars vase cover pattern, out in issue 20 (the  rather fab '60s issue!) of Knit Now is... daytime TV. Yes, this knitting pattern was inspired fairly and squarely by Flog It!

I haven't just seen Whitefriars vases on Flog It. I have seen them in real life. I even bought one for my mum last year. And I have been going to auctions since I was a kid. But would I ever have paid sufficient attention to think of the pattern if I hadn't seen them regularly being auctioned off by Paul Martin & co...? I have to admit, probably not.

Having 'fessed up about my daytime viewing habit, I will add I'm quite proud of this pattern. They're very quick and simple to knit and really do look very good.

The stitch patterns were inspired by two  '60s Whitefriars designs. The vase at the front is the Dimple pattern and the two at the back Nailhead. The Nailhead pattern is the classic Whitefriars look - textured, tactile glass in striking colours.

You could also use them as tea light holders but be very careful if you are using the recommended yarn as cotton is flammable!

You can find out more about Whitefriars glass at http://www.whitefriars.com/

Imagine this blog post with smell

The weather is getting ridiculous. It's just stupidly cold. On the plus side, it seems to be fairly quiet in the courts this week so I have been largely staying at home with Mary Berry's Ultimate Cake Book, getting into some Easter baking & using my new-ish electronic scales for something other than weighing wool & samples (working out nos of balls for grading - being me I have got a spreadsheet for this & everything). I have been knitting a nice summery cotton sample for Knit Now, but frankly its entire unsuitability for wear in the current Arctic conditions has been making me feel chillier if anything.

So I have made Hot Cross Buns for the first time ever:

 

 

Two missing due to us eating them before I took the picture - rather good I have to say. I have been telling myself that kneading and mixing is a sufficient exercise substitute for actually going out and doing anything.

 

Also Simnel cake:

 



It doesn't look like Simnel cake in the book, as Waitrose had obviously had a run on golden marzipan and I had to get the white. (They had also had a run on almond essence, which is my excuse for not making my own instead). So it then didn't seem worth doing an egg glaze - it would look a bit strange, white marzipan with yellow eggwash. I suspect it will not taste much different though! I also quite like the fact I have a slightly misshapen apostle/marzipan ball. I've used marrow and ginger jam instead of apricot as I need to use it up (it tastes quite nice, but I don't think any of my prospective preserve eaters think it will, so although I didn't make very much, there is quite a bit left, and no sign of any takers).

While I'm here I'll say a public thank you to the good people at Owen Barry Bags. I managed to loose the toggle on my rather lovely brown suede bag and they sent me one for free.

Bounty from darkest Peru. And Buffy the Vampire Slayer

My husband has just got back from a business trip to South America which included a few days in Lima, Peru. Thanks to the wonder of Ravelry I found out about the Michell Alpaca shop in Miraflores and he dutifully went there with a list of possible requirements. They didn't know what Aran or 4-ply were but he got me lots of baby Alpaca DK:

 

really so beautifully soft! and a cone of unidentified very fine laceweight which he was told is 8km long...

at a fraction of the retail cost here. Plus a tartan-y woven alpaca scarf which is gorgeously soft.

His return has meant we can continue with another project, watching Buffy-from-the-beginning. We are now midway through Season 4 which means last night we got Hush, one of the best episodes ever made, and also at the zenith of Spike's Imperial phase.

I commend this wool to the House...

It's not often anything woolly (other, than occasionally, the thinking) makes a foray into legal London. Other than the occasional post-Inner London/Blackfriars trip to I-Knit, wool and my job don't tend to come together - the wigs are made of horsehair, not wool. So on finding myself with an hour or so to kill in Chambers it was a delight to find that Woolhouse, the Campaign for Wool's exhibition had landed just down the road at Somerset House.

First plus point - Sheep in the courtyard!

 

 

Frankly I'm a sucker for any event with a herd of sheep outside. I didn't know quite what would be inside - I knew there would be a spot of very impressive crochetdermy, and some chairs. But it was all just fascinating.

 

Compared with your average exhibition, it was very tactile. So much fabric and wool to handle, and of course it's utterly amazing how different woollen fibres can be - one moment thick and sheepy, the next light as air. The exhibition has four bits, sort of - art (fleece tapestries), handcrafts (spinning, lots of balls of wool, dyeing, and Jason Collingwood (http://www.rugweaver.co.uk/) weaving amazing rugs (WANT ONE!!!)), fashion, and furnishing.

 

(That was a complicated sentence.)

 

I was pleased to note a large display of Rowan Purelife British Sheep Breeds in the handcraft section, including the Mid Brown Jacob yarn I used for my Capstan Cowl in the extremely well-timed Best of British edition of Knit Now. Made me feel sort of part of things...!

 

The fashion section included a room full of Savile Row suits. If you have ever invested in a 25g ball of Arctic Qiviut, you may like to speculate on how much an entire bespoke Qiviut and Cashmere suit would cost you on Savile Row. It seems such things are available.

 

Furnishing is probably the biggest section with a suite of sample rooms put together by various designers using wool for walls, floors, furniture and accessories, ranging from traditional:

 

 

 

to ultra modern:

 

 

 

Probably my no. 1 most desirable object was this chair..:

 

 

 

It was in the bedroom section but the not included on the list of suppliers on the wall! Again... WANT ONE!!!

 

There's also a fab kids' bedroom by Donna Wilson - beware of taking your children - they will also be bellowing WANT ONE!!!

 

Everything was fascinating - everything was desirable. But what's this? There was NO SHOP. I heard some ladies asking on the way out if there was a shop and they were told "No. A lot of people are asking about that, and they did consider it, but they wanted to be completely uncommercial".

 

Totally uncommercial - and in the heart of London. That's what I call a breath of fresh air. Although I did in fact want to buy nearly every exhibit.

 

The exhibition is free, and on until March 24th. There's a LOT more to see than I've covered here. Anyone who likes fashion, design, textiles, wool or sheep will love it.