WWKIP Day 2019

It’s that time of year again, when crafters get twitchy and start to make nuisances of themselves by coming out of the woodwork and flaunting their skills and beautiful wips under the noses of unsuspecting passers-by. That’s right, it’s World Wide Knit in Public Day.

As is typical for SnB, we included a range of crafts, not just knitting of course. And unusual for us, we actually went to a yarn shop/cafe. In the past, we’ve chosen some unlikely – but fun! – venues (check it out here and here), but this year we kept it casual.

Our destination of choice was the lovely Folklore Yarns in east Belfast, and owner Åsa (pronounced Oh-sa) and her daughter Hannah made us feel right at home. While we munched on a variety of baked treats and sandwiches, she kept the teapots filled and coffee brewing! We had a variety of crafts on display: knitting, crochet, fibre spinning, patchwork and embroidery. Perhaps best of all was Emma Whitehead ‘s tent: a 20+-year project that never fails to amaze crafters and non-crafters alike. It truly is a sight to behold.

There was some Pom-Pom making, cross-stitching, yarn squishing and yarn sniffing too! Some new friends were made, and old ones caught up. And a few skills were passed on too, because what’s the point of a fibre community if you can’t share the love?

Meriel’s first time spinning!

 

Happy WWKIP Day! 

In honour of pattern adapters everywhere.

Throughout my knitting life (which lets face it is most of my actual life) I have been a pattern follower.

Before I embark on any new project I examine the pattern with forensic precision and immediately rule out anything involving:

• wrap and turn
• complicated lace
• ‘at the same time’
• ‘meantime’  and much more…

I know my limitations and am happy to live within them. However, not all my Stitch and Bitch pals are as vanilla in their outlook.

I have gone ‘off piste’ a couple of times. I have just finished the Hitchiker shawl with sparkly minis created by A Secret Stash. I wanted to use the rainbow minis along with a sparkly black which had been created to accompany it. To be fair, my pattern adaptation simply involved dividing 42 by 7, but for me it was a major leap forward and I am very pleased with the result.

The Rainbow Hitchiker

I am in constant awe when the ‘High Grade Adapters’ get their hands on a pattern.  While I am still scanning it line by line to see if I can actually knit the damn thing they are saying things like, I’m changing the…..

• Yarn
• Gauge
• Cast on
• Cast off
• Sleeves
• Neckline…

My absolute favourite was, ‘ I’ll knit down to the boobs and then decrease like mad’ – how do you even do that?????

This got me thinking about my family – were they adopters or adapters? It seems I am the black sheep. My mother is a beautiful Aran knitter and made a number of cardigans and sweater for my father and I.  However, she has a pathological hatred of bobbles, feeling that they don’t wear as well as the rest of the garment – so – no bobbles – cables instead.

A generation back, my grandmother was a marvel at Fair Isle. During the war she (along with most other women) used MOD supplied wool to make socks and hats for servicemen. She used the leftovers of this wool to create beautiful and intricate patterns on my mother’s jumpers and dresses, admittedly with a rather limited colour pallet. After the war my mother sported jumpers made from ripped out balaclavas for many years.

My great grandmother was even more innovative. She was a lady who definitely knit out of necessity rather than for pleasure. She knit  socks for all the men in the family who were manual labourers. To make the most efficient use of the available yarn she would make the toes and heels from more durable hardwearing yarn. When these would wear down the piece could be ripped out and replaced, lengthening  the lifespan of the socks.

And how have I honoured this great family tradition? Well, my current project, a Tom Creane hat involves using up the scraps from the hitchhiker scarf, and to get the colours right – I have to divide by 4!! I think I have a bit of work to do.

A Pilgrim’s Progress, or The Evolution of Stash

My first foray into yarncraft as an adult (we’ll ignore the failed attempts at knitting from primary school…) was crochet, using a plain Pony hook and some cheap acrylic yarn. After a period of frustration watching Youtube videos, the process did eventually click and I was able to make some simple things. I only had the one hook, and fairly soon I wanted to try something that required a different size. As it happened, my LYS had a good range of Clover hooks with a wide handle so I bought one of those, instead of the plain, thin style. Right away, the difference was clear – the wide, flat handle style suited my hooking style MUCH better, and I could crochet faster and longer.

In terms of needles, once I got on to knitting, I again had the grey Pony brand monstrosities. This, coupled with the aforementioned squeaky acrylic nearly made me give up knitting altogether. At some relatively early point though, I didn’t have the right size of the plasticky needles and I bought a set of KnitPro Zings. Metal, a bit sharper – definitely more my style! From there, I tried out a set of HiyaHiya Sharps (super-pointy, super-slick), and I’ve been using those pretty much exclusively since.

 

 

Back when I was buying knitting and crochet magazines fairly often, I noticed every issue had yarn reviews. I must confess (avert your eyes, those of a sensitive yarn-snob disposition!) that I actually couldn’t understand this at the time – sure all yarn is the same, is it not? I had been fortunate enough to have purchase Stylecraft acrylic as some of my first yarn, so I hadn’t appreciated how truly awful – and squeaky – acrylic can be. And I hadn’t yet experience animal fibre, or cotton, so it was just pure ignorance. My first skein of luxury yarn was some orange Arucania Lace (which is actually about fingering weight). I didn’t have a swift or winder, so the winding of this was a nightmare. But it got me into fibres other than acrylic. From there, I experimented with all weights and colours, and a variety of fibre content. My current favourite yarn to knit with is something non-superwash and about fingering weight. Whether I want the super-smoothness of merino, or something a bit toothier depends on my mood. I still don’t mind crocheting with acrylic (as long as it’s something decent, like Stylecraft), but I hate knitting with anything except wool or alpaca.

 

 

What are your favourite yarns and tools? Has it changed over time?

Meanwhile, Somewhere in Antrim…

Some hijinks I got up to on the 1st Annual Spinning Yarns Festival a couple weekends ago. Enjoy!

A Million Paper Stars

Today I had the pleasure of accompanying my friend Emma from Top Floor Art to the Spinning Yarns Festival at Antrim Castle. This was the first year the festival has taken place, and there has been much chatter about it in the various crafting circles that I frequent. Overall, everyone was pretty excited that Northern Ireland was going to see another celebration of craft – particularly yarn! – following the successful second annual Yarnfolk Festival in Whitehead in August.

So along we went, and when we arrived, we were stunned by the beauty of the grounds. Seriously, the gardens are amazing. But more on that later. First we had a snoop round the tents. There were the usual suspects: a tea & scones tent, a marketplace, several stalls offering yarn, craft-related notions, tweed fabric, workshops, demos, or information about any and all of the above, plus more. The Ulster Guild…

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a break

Due to illness and family bereavement, there will be no blog this week.

We’ll be back soon though:)