Fiber and handspun galore

Happy Monday morning! It's chilly out there, and last night I had a big Porpoise Fur update, including fiber AND a whackload of handspun.

Embers on Shetland (also available on Texel under Phat Fiber colorways), Haematoma on Corriedale, Holly Walk on BFL and Snow Shadows on BFL.

Handspun clockwise from top left: Hooray Sheep! Corriedale 2-ply, Ply by Night BFL singles, Twenty Ten Corriedale singles, Night Must Fall Humbug BFL singles, Scarab Shetland/Shetland-silk 2-ply, Scarab Shetland singles, Death to MRSA BFL singles, B… — Handspun clockwise from top left: Hooray Sheep! Corriedale 2-ply, Ply by Night BFL singles, Twenty Ten Corriedale singles, Night Must Fall Humbug BFL singles, Scarab Shetland/Shetland-silk 2-ply, Scarab Shetland singles, Death to MRSA BFL singles, Botany Bay alpaca/merino singles.

Just in case anyone is in need of some woolly goodness to help ward off the chill...;-D

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Bonfire Night

I love Bonfire Night. OK, the historical events that led to this ever-so-British of autumnal celebrations are maybe not my favorite, but a big fire, complete with an evil perpetrator being burned in effigy followed by fireworks? That is a start of winter send off that I can get behind.

And this week, winter has suddenly reached out its icy fingertips and stroked England's collective cheek in warning - I am here, I am coming for you. Brrrr! So it seems fitting that this month's new pattern should be a perfect match for the day and the weather. Meet Bonfire Night:

Bonfire Night is a super cozy, super fast knit that is perfect to wear huddled around your friendly neighborhood bonfire this Guy Fawkes Day. Its bulky wool and cozy thick cables will snuggle around your neck and up over your ears, keeping you toasty warm through the night. Shown above, worked in Lioness Arts Roar!, a super squishy 100% superwash merino, or below in Debbie Bliss Paloma, a lovely alpaca/merino blend, this cowl comes in two sizes to suit every need. Tubular cast on and bind off make for perfectly matching hems, and a super elastic edge.

SKILLS NEEDED: Knitting, purling, working in the round, cabling, tubular cast on and bind off. Links to tutorials for the cast on and bind off are included in the pattern.

The cowl is worked in the round on circular needles. The pattern includes both a charted cable pattern and written stitch pattern instructions, if you don't like charts.

SIZES: Small (large), approximately 17 (22.5) in/43 (57) cm in circumference, and 10 (14) in/25.5 (35.5) cm tall.

YARDAGE: Super bulky yarn, approximately 140 (205) yds/128 (188) m. Shown in Debbie Bliss Paloma (73 yds/50 g) in Fuschia, and Lioness Arts Roar! (108 yds/100 g) in Moonlight.

Many thanks to Dani Sunshine of Lioness Arts for yarn support, and R. Deborah Overath for technical editing. You can purchase Bonfire Night either by clicking on the "buy now" button below, or from my Ravelry Store.

I hope you enjoy this pattern, and stay warm out there!

Bonfire Night, a cowl in two sizes ($5.00)

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Woecakes

Teachers the world over bemoan the seeming inability of some of their students to fail to follow or, in some cases, even read the directions. Heh. Read on for a prime knitting example of why directions are important.

Way back in June, I started working on a sweater that I am DYING to be done with - I can't begin to explain how much I want to have this one off the needles and on my back, particularly when the mornings have a bit of a bite, and I need something to throw on for the school run.

Well, things were going pretty well for a while (after the first ripping festival when I decided to change needles and knit it inside out, because (shudders) reverse stockinette dontcha know). But then the move happened, and I put it down and it was forgotten for quite a while.

About a week and a half ago I picked it up again - I had managed to get through the short rows for one sleeve, and once I figured out where the heck I was in the pattern, the second sleeve cruised along and I managed to seam them up and finally, FINALLY start on the body.

Now, a sweater in fingering weight yarn is, as I'm sure we'll all agree, a commitment. It's a labor of love, because it certainly isn't any kind of instant gratification project. So I was working away on the body, a few rows here, a few rows there. Last weekend we went to take the dog for a walk in Richmond Park, and I attempted to mortify my children by knitting and walking at the same time. With other people around! Imagine their horror*.

Yesterday Allison and I had a meet up at a coffee shop, and while I was waiting for her, I pulled out my Juniper and started working, hoping to get a few more rows done before she arrived and we had to talk shop.

After a while, I thought "Self, you've got your Kindle here**, and it might be a good idea to see how long the body needs to be." Which was thoroughly unnecessary, as the body certainly needs to be longer then the approximately 3 inches I had done, but anyway: I pulled out the Kindle and opened up the pattern.

I looked at the pattern. I looked at my knitting. I looked at the pattern again. I looked at my knitting again. And do you know what I saw?

Actually, more important is what I didn't see.

What I didn't see were any decreases. Because in the pattern, you're supposed to work a set of decreases every few rows for waist shaping. And I, in my complete and utter daze of enthusiasm to get this thing done, had read through the sleeve directions and joining to work in the round for the body and NEGLECTED TO READ ANY FURTHER.

Because I am an idiot. Knitters, don't be me. Learn from my bad example. Because otherwise,

You too may end up with a pile of red, fingering weight spaghetti, for the SECOND TIME*** in one project. Woe. Woe is me.

* Disappointingly, when I said to Devil "Is this weird that I'm walking and knitting?", she replied "Nope." Darn it!

** I am trying to both a) save paper and b) combat my tendency to print out a pattern, make lots of notes on it, and then promptly lose it by using electronic copies.

*** At least one time too many, if not two times. Bah!

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GLYC 2014 recap

Well. It's now been just over a week since the 2014 edition of the Great London Yarn Crawl, and I think we're finally caught up on all the thank yous and updates that we've needed to do.

It was an amazing day. I went off in the morning to St. Margarets to meet up with a couple of the teams before they went to Mrs. Moon.

After sending off Teams Swaledale and Suffolk on their GLYC journey, i came home and finished packing up all the door prize goodies that needed to get to King's Cross. Then I went off into town to visit Wild & Woolly in Clapton. Somehow I managed to get absolutely no photos at all of this lovely little shop, but I did get some yarn...

Then it was a rapid shuffle back to The Parcel Yard to help get everything set up for the after party. It was absolutely incredible. I was stationed on the table for raffle tickets, with the prize basket prominently displayed. I wasn't really expecting too much in the way of knitted donations, because I hadn't seen much chatter on the boards, and, well, people are busy. Boy was I wrong!

*My new yarn, taking in the view of the King's Cross platforms before the party starts. This is going to become something gorgeous and lacy and good for snuggling with on cold autumn mornings....*

The above is only part of the knitted donated goods we collected. All together, GLYC participants knit 149 items for Refuge, and the event in total raised £812, almost three times the amount raised last year. Unbelievable!

Lots of other people have shared their thoughts and experiences on GLYC 2014 - if you check out the GLYC Media page, you should find links to lots of blog posts and podcasts.

Thank you again to so many people for making the event such a huge success: the shops, our sponsors, our fantastic and enthusiastic volunteers, and all of the participants who came out, hauled their cookies around London for an entire day, and still managed to have the energy to come have a drink and show off their goodies at the after party. We'll see you all next year!

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Building a community

The second annual Great London Yarn Crawl kicks off tomorrow, and amidst all the chaos and last minute firefighting and excitement leading up to the day, I've been thinking about why Allison and I organise this brouhaha, and what it's come to mean to me.

When we started off, we decided that we wanted to create something that was about the community of knitters that we are a part of, and about trying to bring that community together for some real life interaction. I find that much of my interactions with other fiber/yarn people takes place online. God bless Ravelry, which has put millions of like-minded individuals in touch with each other all over the world, but it doesn't provide the same sort of connection that meeting up with people in the here and now. The GLYC is a way for people to come together and make new friends, find new shops to enjoy in the future, and discover new independent vendors and designers who have been so incredibly generous in their sponsorship (from left to right below: Kettle Yarn Co, Rock + Purl, Countess Ablaze, Artesano Yarns, and Tin Can Knits).

This year's GLYC has expanded from 6 routes to 8, added four new shops that we're really excited about, and has, once again, a vast pile of goodies to give away at the after party, this year sponsored by Pom Pom Quarterly. In fact, we have so many goodies that we've been able to pull together a Grand Prize basket to be given away tomorrow night in a raffle designed to raise even more funds for our charity partner, Refuge.

This year we also sold out the event, which means that over 100 eager knitters, crocheters, spinners, weavers and sewists will be taking to the London streets tomorrow on a whirlwind adventure!

I've got a little contribution of my own to this community building event: my latest pattern is ready to be published today. This was originally submitted to the Unwind Brighton design contest, and I'm thrilled that it's finally ready to be released. Meet the Brighton Dome Socks.

To celebrate the release of the pattern (finally!) and tomorrow's GLYC extravaganza, I'm going to give this pattern away for free from now until midnight tomorrow, 20 September 2014. Simply go to the Ravelry pattern page, add the pattern to your cart, and put "GLYC2014" in the coupon code box - voila! Free sock pattern!

Please note: this offer will end automatically at midnight on 20 September, so don't forget! And if you're on the Yarn Crawl tomorrow, pick up some lovely high twist sock yarn to knit these babies up for the coming cold weather.

I'm looking forward to an exhausting and exhilarating day tomorrow, and to enjoying some time with my community. See you there?

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