January warm up

To ginger up the new year, on a very frosty morning. Knitted on my latest .machine, AKMC 72 slot compound cylinder.

All gone!

All 25 machine's of Bill's that I was entrusted with have been duspersed. 22 sold, 2 rare ones ( Home & Colonial and the litte rapid) dobated to the musem, and I was given one for myself. In addition, 3 of TP's sold. 24 hours after the last one went out of the house I was brought another and offered yet another one! what a year of helping other people it has been.

Blog gaps don't mean I'm not knitting!

Handwarmers and socks are always on the go. Still refurbushung machi es and passing them on.

The advent of Advent has meant some small fiddly items have been on the needles as well.

A machination of machines

Okay, so I missed writing in August! It's been full of macine sales. Since the beginning of March, I have helped M and J sell 3 V-beds and 15 circular machines, most of them in working order. What a whirlwind it has been. The Framework Knitters Museum has also benefited, of course, and I have learnt a lot along the way. My reward has been an AKMC amchine, the one whose cylinders are on little legs. Now that new needles have arrived, I will be thinking of items to knit on it. possibly starting with a long hot water bottle cover now that autumn is truly here. Had the bottle itself since m March, and have a pattern written out, just not got round to it.

Sometimes, you don't get it right

Handspun, hand-dyed, handknit. When I gave up spinning a couple of years ago, I hung on to my last lot of stuff, wool spun with silk. notcall that wasy. so e was dyed with madder and two-plied, some plied as o e strand natural, one strand madder, and the rest left undyed. the plan was for a "last fling" cardigan in fan and feather stitch.. calculations wete made, progress was slow. today I slipped one quarter of the stitches onto a thread to measure it. Big enough to drown an elephant. back to the computer and a re-wind.

No hempen rope for me

today I was sworn in as a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Framework Knitters. this is the first stepping stone to gettingvthe Frredom of the City of London. That would then mean I could be hanged with a silk rope insread of a hempen one, could walk through the City with an unsheathed sword, and druve sheep over London Bridge without paying a toll. And, if found drink and disorderly would only be bundled into a taxi instead of being arrested ...

That Garden Party

40 minute queue to get in under shady London plane trees. 8,000 guests, hundreds of staff, sunny weather, stupendous gardens, dozens of soaring floral arrangements in terrificly long tea tent, exquisite tea. That pohoto is only the half of it as I had eaten the rest before finding somewhere to place it for the photo. The eclair is coffee, with coffee flavoured confectioners cream in side. On my! The whole afternoon was really lovely.