Bendy spoils, but no HP spoils…

**** edited to add photos*****

I think I managed to have the most perfect weekend.

The plan was good – get into town at before 9, get book at 0901 (or there abouts), get picked up by Gwet and Clare, and then speed read all the way to Bendigo…

And then late Friday night I received a call from Gwet – Clare, for reasons beyond her control, would not be able to make it to the wool and sheep show… therefore… after deciding I would rather spend the day with my nose stuck in the book, Gwet and I decided to reschedule and head up Sunday.

I don’t remember much of Saturday – Mum at some stage tried to lure me out of Hogwarts with dinner, but I decided to finish the book before I ate (my first meal of the day…) You will find no more on the topic here….

However, Sunday was fantastic – happy, happy, joy, joy good.

I, of course, took the opportunity to dress in some of my new (and old) works –

Jo sharp Beret -

Newly blocked sea-wool clapotis –

And preparing for the worst of the central Victoria weather, my Jet sweater and crazy socks were also included in my wardrobe choices for the day. (Naturally, all of these precautions meant it was a fine and sunny day – I was even questioning whether or not my nose was a bit sunburnt last night!)

On its first trip out in the wild, the clap did not disappoint! Several requests were made for the pattern, and queries made about the yarn. I took pleasure in being able to show off – and love the fact that the marriage of a simple pattern and a great yarn could yield such favourable results!

Gwet and I decided we needed to pace ourselves, so left the Bead and Opal Queen with much restraint (although 3 balls of opal for $25 was an excellent bargain – I managed to pass.) The restraint lasted until we got to the Braeside- and Becreatif- alpaca stands. I fell in love with the suri roving, and the magic worlds “last two left” meant I had to grab one then and there. Gwet had decided to by some of the suri handpainted yarn, but due to indecisiveness, managed to leave the stand without a purchase (which lasted, mayhap, 20 minutes, before she had to go back and finalise the purchase.)

The next place of ill-restraint was the Collinette stand. I too, was tempted by the semi-solid jitterbug so many Sydneysider knitbloggers had bragged about following the craft show, and ended up buying 4 skeins. We had a great chat with Sarah Durrant, who agreed with me that there are great similarities between jitterbug and socks that rock, and perhaps the same blanks were used by both companies.

I managed to bump into Barb – the editor of Yarn mag. She, too, was dressed head to toe in handknits (loved those legwarmers!). I was glad to catch up, because I recently sent her an email with some feedback and constructive criticism and wanted to ensure no offence would be taken. We ended up having quite a yarn ourselves! It was also quite a treat to see the samples from the magazine patterns made up!

I made one final purchase before we decided to check out the fibre beasts – Nancy Bush’s ‘Knitting Folk Socks’. I love the historical content included in the chapters before any techniques and knitting patterns.

Gwet and I both fell in love with the alpacas, but I was unable to have a couple* of the camelids follow me home (Gwet was driving and it would have been a tad bit too crowded in the golf!)

*you need to get them in pairs or more, as they are social animals

And this guy looked like he would be right at home down the coast – it is possible to teach alpaca to surf???

Follow up with a bit home-cooked tucker with Gwet’s family (and her adorable min-pin puppies) and it was a fantastic day! I’ll definitely be making the trip next year!

BLURT!

I have a lot of things that I have been meaning to blog about in the past week or so, and just haven’t got around to it… so I have decided to blurt it all out here…

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This great little satchel is handmade by The Shopping Sherpa (www.theshoppingsherpa.blogspot.com) and I won it from her earlier this year in a blog contest. It is a very convenient bag, however, due to TSS’s monochromatic colour scheme it creates a great canvas for groovy badges and pins. Did you notice that one right in the middle? Let me zoom it in a bit for you…

This little jelly-baby pin was an impulse purchase when I was in line at the checkout – so cute that I had to grab one. It is to raise funds for research into Juvenile Diabetes and to attempt to find a cure. I am really glad that I did now, because it turns out that Dotter (aka Othlon) has been dealt the rather harsh hand of being diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes in the past couple of weeks. Jelly-baby month is officially May – but there are still some lingering around. If you see them around, spare your 2 bucks for a worthy cause – I plan to have an army of different coloured Jellybabies on that bag eventually. To read more about how annoying Diabetes can be, check out Dotter’s blog over at Othlon’s Demon Knits, or her Mum’s blog, Jejune’s Place

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Centrelink. GRRRRR! Need I say more!

However, I did get a good deal of knitting time down on the “got any blacker” commissioned scarf. Too bad that I decided it should be narrower to add extra length and frogged it all when I got home!

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The yarn I used for my clapotis is Fleece Artist Sea Wool – it is a 70/30 wool/seacell blend and a gorgeous silk mimic. I bought it through www.littleknits.com – I think that Kate at Blue Mountains Knits, and either Paisley Womble (or maybe Ozknitter? One of the sock queens) also has had a play around with it.

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Those of you who are awake will have noticed the past tense in the previous topic ‘yarn used for clapotis’ – Yes, c’est fini! After wearing it last night and today, I finally bought some foam tiles to block it on. It’s HUGE!

And the best part – this is all the yarn I have left!

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Having finished my Tour de France knitting commitments, I went looking for another French inspired knit before I went to s’n’b last night. I found a couple of balls of Jo Sharp Desert Garden Aran Cotton in the stash and a cute beret pattern in Knit2.

Well… c’est fini! Guess I will just have to make the “got any blacker’ commission scarf my new tour project. And really, cashmere in a man’s scarf – that’s very European, dare I say it, Parisienne!

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My new spindle I flaunted last week is a ringspindle from Golding Fibre Tools – these are like the Lantern Moon for Spinners. The make gorgeous objects that can be displayed as works of art by themselves, yet are also beautiful, well-functioning tools. Go check them out at www.dropspindle.info

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And Pierre is still alive and well – to cope with the wet and cold weather down here I made him a doggie-sweater. I actually finished this a couple of weeks ago, but completely forgot to post it.

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Also, someone asked me what EZ book I would recommend reading first – I think that you can’t go wrong with “Knitting Without Tears” – it covers all the basic EZ concepts and has patterns to keep you warm from head to toe.

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I think that’s the lot – I’ll try to avoid the monster posts in the future!

black dog delays

Hey guys –

I know it is supposed to be Fight the Black Dog FRIDAYS, but I am a tad delayed with this weeks edition. Please check back later on tomorrow and I should have the final copy of my post for the week up… I'm sure it'll still be Friday somewhere in the world!

In the mean time, be distracted by the process I have made on my Clapotis, which is providing a stunning backdrop for my gorgeous new toy. Perhaps I should have signed up for the Tour de Fleece as well as the KAL!

So what does a gal do when she misses her market debut?

Well, I don’t know about you but I used my free Sunday to play up on Saturday night… but more on that in a minute –

Thank you all for your best wishes for my Pop – his surgery went fine, and as of this morning is back at home annoying my Nan. To clear up any confusion, Pop is my maternal grandfather (ie, Mum’s Dad) and there are some rather dashing pictures of him here. As to what he sells at the market – well, I have blogged about his markets before, but to recap there are handcraft by my Nan (mostly knit and crochet), plants and seeds propagated by my Pop, as well as his handy-work with wood and such that entertains him out in the shed. He also makes some fantastic recycled cutlery wind-chimes! He is a rather energetic old man, and sometimes I forget he is a septuagenarian and a month shy of being exactly 50 years older than me (I’m the 28^th March, he’s 28^th April) so perhaps it shouldn’t be a surprise that things may go wrong requiring hospital stays – but it always is.

So now back to the weekends events – my bestest bud had a big party to celebrate turning 28 (his favourite number) and had family and friends from all over the state heading to Geelong. Needless to say, not needing to awake early on Sunday to prepare for market, I ended up not going abed until early Sunday. Since becoming ill, I haven’t been much into crowds, parties, or such; however I was apparently very much my old self from 3 years ago – very talkative and loud whilst making rounds of the guests. (I think that may have been a polite way of saying I was obnoxious and annoying – but I had a good time). I’ll be writing a bit about alcohol and depression for this Friday’s “Fight the Black Dog”.

Of course, my bud is a bit of an athlete, and in the past has competed in triathlons and cycling, but currently is right into building and racing recumbent tricycles, aka human powered vehicles. This means there were a few people into pedal power at the party, so at stupid o’clock in the morning we switched over to SBS to watch Le Tour prologue live from Londres. Sadly, no knitting was done (due to the fact I may have taken out my, or someone else’s eye with those dangerously sharp knitpicks in my ever so slightly incapacitated state) but I was clicking away in spirit. I doubt I will stay up to watch any of the other stages (I am supposed to be working on getting into a decent sleeping routine) but I will definitely be catching all Le Tour highlights on SBS each night (I think they are 6pm mon-sat, 530pm on sun) and sitting with my needles in hand.

The aim is to finish my Clapotis by the end of le Tour (I started it just before the KAL was announced, so it has been sitting on the back burner for a few weeks) and I am working it in gorgeous sea-wool. I have found the magic number of stitches for the most beautiful colour pooling effect, and I think the fabric looks like it was printed after it was made rather than dyed before.

And congrats to Robbie McEwan who is sitting pretty with the green jersey!

FREE PATTERN – “La Lanterne Rouge” hat

The rider who is bringing up the rear (ie last) in the Tour de France is known as the “Lanterne Rouge” – the nickname stems from a time when red lamps used to hang from cabooses on trains.

When I think of the “Lanterne Rouge”, I have to admit I have rather romantic notions – this cyclist does not care if he doesn’t hold the yellow or green jersey, nor does he worry if he is not a contender for the King of the Mountain – because, this cyclist is ecstatic just to be competing in the world’s most prestigious cycling event and does not care where he places. There are times when I sometimes feel a little like a “Lanterne Rouge”, but then I remember that sometimes making it somewhere is usually most of the battle. This design is for anyone who has ever been proud to just show up!

Make this hat in a bright red and no matter how far you fall behind the peloton, they will never be able to lose you!

For this design I took inspiration from the shape of old iron lamps with live flames trapped within, and a ring on top from which you can hand the lamp. Worked in the entirely in the round, twisted stitches (or mini cables), divide the hat into 6 sections, each containing a flame motif on a basic lace background. An angora blend has been used to create a ‘halo’ or ‘glow’ effect. In order to obtain greater stitch definition, all knit stitches are twisted (worked through the back loop).

This hat uses less than one skein of yarn, however, if you make a gauge swatch you will have to unravel it to complete the project.

SIZE

This hat comfortably fits most adult heads up to 58cm.

FINISHED MEASUREMENTS

Cirumference: 44cm

Height: 26cm

MATERIALS

Naturally Sensation 10ply (70% merino/ 30% Angora – 120m per 50 skein – shade 305) x1

40cm 4.5mm circular needle (or size to obtain gauge)
4.5mm Double Pointed Needles

Stitch markers
Tapestry needle

GAUGE 22sts / 30rows = 10 cm in stockinette stitch

PATTERN

Cast on 102 stitches.

Join in round, being careful not to twist – place marker at beginning of round.

Follow chart from right to left starting at row #1. Repeat chart 5 times to complete round.

Continue following chart to row 72 (6 stitches remain)

Knit 2 together 3 times (3 stitches remain)

Work an i-cord on remaining 3 stitches until i-cord measures 8cm.

Cut off working yarn and pull through remaining 3 stitches to bind. Sew end of i-cord to top of hat to create loop as shown in pictures.

Weave in all ends.

(Click to enlarge chart)

Wow - A great start!

Thank you all so much for your support of my "Knit & Fight the Black Dog" campaign - it has only been two days since I launched it, but already it has reached beyond the circle of my acquaintances. It was not an easy post to write, and I have a feeling that your frank and honest responses would have been just as difficult - I am already working on next Friday's post which will contain some links to sites, but already I feel some topics for future discussion have arisen from your feedback. Come back on Friday to see the next step in this campaign, but please feel free to stick around and see what else I get up too!

I signed up for "le tour" KAL - I have volunteered to be 'la lanterne rouge' !

Feeling rather inspired I designed a cute pattern that I should have available tomorrow (provided I can get the chart sorted :S). It uses just one skein of a gorgeous soft wool/angora blend. Here's a sneak peek - but piccies showing more detail are over at my flickr account (link in the side bar)

ALLEZ! ALLEZ!