Had a long trek into The Big City by bus, crocheting handles of a peachy-coloured string bag on the way. The bag had been started on the CSM, with every other stitch dropped. Quite pleased with the effect but thought a crochet start base would be better. Tried this by Montse Stanley’s pinhole start on eleven trebles, next round increased to 21 trebles, next round 42 trebles. Looked a bit tiny so did a round of 42 double trebles. It will just stretch to every other needle on the machine. Added advantage is that it could be put on an empty machine, no fiddling with cutting waste yarn off afterwards.
My business finished in the big city, caught the bus back but got off in one of the suburbs, half an hour in the Fa
bric Place choosing some jersey fabric for a new frock, then crossed the road to Yarn, or as I prefer to call it from their website address, yarn-in-notts (think about it!). I was shown a new sock yarn, Happy by Wendy (Thomas Ramsden Group). This is 75% bamboo and 25% nylon and I could see straightaway that the CSM would love it, and I was right. Bamboo yarn is rather lively, so it snarled up a big on re-winding, but not enough to annoy. The colour way is Aquarius, and the small blue splashed in the pale green seemed to come out a slightly different pattern in each repeat, which is rather charming. AND the price is only £5.95. I ran the remainder through the Knitmaster, 64 sts, 148 rows at T7, so it looks like with care I will be able to get a pair of short fingerless mitts out of it as well - I do gloves starting on 56 sts increasing to 64, in case you are wondering why I chose that number of stitches.
bric Place choosing some jersey fabric for a new frock, then crossed the road to Yarn, or as I prefer to call it from their website address, yarn-in-notts (think about it!). I was shown a new sock yarn, Happy by Wendy (Thomas Ramsden Group). This is 75% bamboo and 25% nylon and I could see straightaway that the CSM would love it, and I was right. Bamboo yarn is rather lively, so it snarled up a big on re-winding, but not enough to annoy. The colour way is Aquarius, and the small blue splashed in the pale green seemed to come out a slightly different pattern in each repeat, which is rather charming. AND the price is only £5.95. I ran the remainder through the Knitmaster, 64 sts, 148 rows at T7, so it looks like with care I will be able to get a pair of short fingerless mitts out of it as well - I do gloves starting on 56 sts increasing to 64, in case you are wondering why I chose that number of stitches.
Brought some rough stuff home - it was (probably) Jacob’s wool on a huge cone, but although between 4ply and DK and only a single ply, very coarse, and slightly oiled. Made up a sample piece to throw in the washing machine, and it did not come out as fluffy as I expected. A friend thought there might be some linen in it - it certainly has that linen “bounce”. But not something you would want next to your skin. The CSM didn’t like it, so back to hand knitting.
course nobody else was using Wensleydale fleece which is my favourite. The day could have been chaotic with three microwaves, five gas burners and two electric burners going, but it worked amazingly well, and everybody produced results far, far beyond my expectations. I hope this comes out in the photos. They all got very excited, and Helen suggested that we have a “dessert” course next year - dyeing with fruits such as blackberries. It was probably one of the best days we have had (she said, modestly).
