Weekend Curiosity

This is the venue for Saturday night's dinner. 

That is Mater in the photo. It was pretty amazing which is not surprising when you consider it is owned by the family behind the Miller's Antique Guides, and is actually called 'Millers'. 

It is in Porlock, which is very pretty in itself...

... and the dining room looks out over the sea. 

Pooch was enthralled. This is a really rubbish photo which gives the impression of the just off full moon rising in the sky with the moonlight dappling the water. It was awesome, and that photo is frankly a travesty of it. 

Staying with mother is always excellent as she is a mean cook and has a cat! Artemis is the dog's when it comes to cats. 

She is pure hunter outdoors, and pure softy indoors. It's like a personality disorder. 

She also sleeps with her paw over her nose, which is unbearably cute. 

So not only cats, but also mother's cooking AND two, not just one, but two boot fairs. We don;t have boot fairs in london. No big car parks or fields. Here it seems like most farmers are dependent on renting the odd field out for boot fairs for a living. To the right....

....and to the left.

I scored a large amount of buttons which made me very happy indeed. 

That must be enough for one post so I'll wait til tomorrow to show you what Mum cooked AND share one of her classic recipes. Cinnamon buns dude. They are seriously amazing. 

SkipNorth Holiday - Limited places Left

SkipNorth - knitting holiday extraordinaire - is filling up fast!

Following the KnitCamp debacle there is some rightful doubt about the safety of paying your money to flybynight event organisers, but SkipNorth is in its sixth year and has never caused anyone to be deported. We've got just 12 places left so move fast to snag one.

If you find the idea of a weekend of knitting/spinning/crocheting, learning, socialising, cake eating and shopping appealing, then you should go here to look at the SkipNorth website. Follow the links to the agenda and booking form.

11th - 13th March, Haworth (in Yorkshire), Awesome. Enough said.

Flattr - I made some money!

Woop woop! I made 2.10 Euros on Flattr.

Well, I say made. I put in 2 Euros so I suppose strictly speaking I made 10 cents, but hey, that's a profit. And I never even joined up to make money - only to show appreciation of the blogposts of others. 

I posted about Flattr before after hearing about it from the amazing Craftypod. To be honest I had kind of forgotten about it but I went on there today out of curiosity and found 2.10 Euros waiting for me. Hubba hubba! If you get 10 Euros you can transfer it to your bank account, but I never intended to make any money so I have transferred it back to my 'giving' pile and so it will be shared out again when I flattr some more people. 

While on flattr.com I searched for craft blogs and came across Inspiration Junkie. Love it! Sadly led me straight to her etsy shop to spend some money but it is for a birthday present I had been keeping an eye out for so it's all good. Plus, it means the micro-economy of Flattr has led to money entering the macro-economy of Etsy.

And that is pretty cool. 

 

Inside my house

I really love having pictures on the walls. I spied this girl with her cat at Greenwich Market at the weekend.

Isn't she adorable? I did have a 'keep calm cast on' print there but that has moved to the opposite wall where I've got a bit of a motley collection going on. 

It is my ambition to have a strip of framed pictures like this going all the way around the room. But that is one of those ambitions that is going to have to wait until I actually own the walls I'm banging nails into.

On Regret and High Society

I've posted before on this blog about 'regrets' and the song 'My Way' by Sinatra. I was rewatching High Society* (Grace Kelly - so very beautiful) last week which of course stars the great Frank. There are some lovely scenes between them where they are both drunk and being all flirty and silly. Of course she's engaged to someone else and this is the night before her wedding, plus her ex-husband (Bing Crosby) is hanging about. Really, it's pretty scandalous stuff. And then in the morning she's trying to piece back together what happened the previous night and is all jumpy because she cannot remember what she did with who (of course she didn't actually do anything naughty because this is a family film).

The song doesn't appear in that film, but it reminded me of it. Especially this bit:

Regrets? I've had a few,
But then again, too few to mention.
I did what I had to do
And saw it through without exemption.


I planned each charted course -
Each careful step along the byway,
And more, much more than this,
I did it my way.


Yes, there were times, I'm sure you knew,
When I bit off more than I could chew,
But through it all, when there was doubt,
I ate it up and spit it out.
I faced it all and I stood tall
And did it my way.


I've loved, I've laughed and cried,
I've had my fill - my share of losing.
But now, as tears subside,
I find it all so amusing.


To think I did all that,
And may I say, not in a shy way -
Oh no. Oh no, not me.
I did it my way.

I've been thinking a lot about regrets and whether it is better to regret doing something or to regret not having tried to do something. I've also posted about channelling your inner-17-year-old and I think the two things are connected. My mother was telling me how she wanted to go swimming locally but last time she and my step-dad went they were repeatedly told off by the guard. And to put this in context let me tell you that my mother is quite like Mrs Tiggywinkle.

Me: "What were you doing?"
She: "Well Robbie and I were pretending to be sharks and then I was being a dolphin, and I would leap out of the water like a dolphin and Robbie would catch me."
Me: "Ah"
She: "Yes, they kept saying we just had to swim up and down in the lanes. So we left and haven't been back."

I told this story to my colleagues, and my Director remarked it explained a lot about me. Which is fair comment, since, like my mother, I have always been in the camp of being more likely to regret doing something, than to regret not doing something. Because at least then you know what happened, rather than being in a permanent state of "What if..." In fact...."To think I did all that, And may I say, not in a shy way" could just about sum it up.

So to finish, an example of how this translates into knitting.

This has been variously referred to, but the name I like best is 'malformed buttocks'. It is a bag out of the A Second Treasury of Magical Knitting and is the "Mobius Fanny Basket" which says it all really. It came about because I was very keen on felting at the time, wanted to try the mobius knitting style, and didn't read the instructions properly. So while I am glad I did it (and I later did a cat basket that did work much better), I regret wasting my time on something so freaking ugly and useless. But if I hadn't I'd be wondering what it would have looked like and have convinved myself it would have made my life better in some way.

But really - isn't that the most regrettable knitting object you've ever seen?

*A word of warning - if you google 'High Society' and look at 'images' be aware that it is also the title of a porn magazine. I'm just saying is all. 

Steeking #2

Last year I made my first steeked cardigan, made of Kauni. It is in my view the greatest thing I have ever knitted. Yesterday I steeked my second cardigan. For the uninitiated, steeking is where you knit something in the round and then cut it to create a front opening of a cardigan, or a neckline, or an armhole etc. To stop the knitting unravelling you can either perform some sort of crochet magic which I know nothing of, or use a sewing machine to sew a line of small straight stitch either side of your cut, or if you are using 'sticky' wool you don;t need to secure it at all as it basically instantly felts itself together. I'm a sewing machine gal myself.

Here it is pre cutting. 

You add a band of extra stitching for you to cut through and then fold back, before picking up along the edge to add a button band. And here it is after cutting.

I think I've done the neck too high so there may be some impromptu steeking where I cut a new neckline, but that will wait until it is fitted on my mater next weekend. I have a history of taking FOREVER to knit things for relatives so it will come as no surprise that I started this about a year ago. I'm almost there now though. 

The thing I have found with steeking though, is that it is easy to get taken in by the hype. You read a lot about people getting really nervous about it, but if you sew a line and then cut and then don't suddenly start yanking at it, there's not much that can really go wrong. And taking scissors to your knitting is strangely liberating. So if you have avoided steeking, give it a go. It is good and so much easier than trying to do fairisle with the wrong side facing you. 

After my course on machine embroidery and applique at the Make Lounge I wanted to have a go on my own machine. I got the quilting/free motion foot for my machine and yesterday I went for it. Here is what I ended up with. 

Six rather odd looking xmas tree decorations! I tried out a few different designs. It is definitely the ones with the circles I like most though. Like do it yourself polka dots, and after sewing them you get to decide how many and where you want to cut them out. 

They are a bit jobby but you can always rely on your mother to coo over this kind of thing so they are destined for her. 

Pooch has been away all this week and so to cheer myself up I introduced a new friend into the family. 

They are possibly the best shoes I've ever had and arrived chez byrne via Office. They are one of those things that show me up to be terribly shallow and materialistic but I just don't care! Wearing them makes me fabulously happy!

Twitter on Tutorial Tuesday

It's Tutorial Tuesday. And this week, it's Twitter.

What is Twitter?

Twitter is a free service where you can send messages to your "followers". Messages are a maximum or 140 characters long. So that's 140 letters, including spaces, punctuation, web addresses or whatever else you want to include. 

Essential vocab and basics

• Followers = people who are subscribed, or who "follow" your tweets.
• Tweets = the messages you send through Twitter are referred to as Tweets. 
• Reply = messages intended for just one person, but which will be seen by everyone following you. Adding a @ symbol in front of someone's twitter name indicates your message is directed at them. Example below. 

• @ can also be used to indicate who you are talking about. In the first of the hashtag examples below, as well as using a made up hashtag (explained below) I've also indicated who Sister Diane is. This means others can click on her name and see her tweets. 
• Retweet = a message someone else sent that you want to forward to your followers. Designated by the letters RT at the beginning of the message. It is also normal to credit the original sender by putting @[sender's name] in the message. 

• Hashtags = ways of following a topic rather than a person. People tag their own tweets with words which sometimes they've made up (first example below) and which more often are related to an event or topical subject (second example below is for the IKnit Weekender).

• When tweeting web addresses it is useful to use a service like tinyurl.com to shorten the URL. So for example, a link to one of my blog posts might be http://lixiemakesit.blogspot.com/2010/09/episode-20-of-podcast.html which is using up 67 of my precious 140 characters. Using tinyurl (free and no registration needed) it becomes http://tinyurl.com/38yz8jl which is only 26 characters. There are lots of other websites which will do the same kind of thing but I like this one. 

Reading Tweets

Option 1: You don't have to sign up to twitter to read people's tweets. This is worth remembering as it highlights that NOTHING on the internet is private. To read tweets without registering just go to twitter.com and type in the name of the person or the thing you are interested in. In this example I've typed in my twitter name (littlelixie) and hit search. 

I can now go further. I can click on any of the tweets from littlelixie or that are addressed to me (using the @littlelixie tag) and that takes me to my twitter homepage. Because I have not logged in the computer does not know I am looking at my own page, and is encouraging me to "follow" littlelixie. 

You could bookmark each person you wanted to "follow" but it would be a bit tedious switching between pages to keep up to date. That is why I could recommend Option 2....

Option 2: Register with Twitter and "follow" people as this then groups all their tweets together each time you log on. If you are worried about online security just use a different name to your real one. Simply click on 'sign up' at twitter.com and in 30 seconds you can have your own account. 

Navigating a Twitter Page

Once you have logged in, this is roughly what you will see. 

The five labelled sections are...

1. This is where you type your tweet. It can include web addresses, plain text, numbers, hashtags (#), @ symbols etc. Just remember that what you type will probably be seen by others unless you have altered your privacy settings (see below for more).
2. This indicates how many characters you have left. If it goes into negative numbers then you will have problems sending that tweet. 
3. This is where your own tweets show up once sent, plus the tweets of anyone you are following. 
4. This is your little dashboard showing the tweets you have sent, who are you following, who is following you and how many 'lists' your tweets appear in. I am not going into lists here as that is a bit more advanced but easy to understand once you are used to twitter itself. 
5. This is where you can search for a topic (i.e. knitting) a hashtag trending topic (such as #iknit) or a person (such as Bill Bailey). You can also save searches. 

How to Follow People

Find someone you want to follow and go to their twitter page (use the search tool described above).

Underneath their twitter name is a button that says 'follow'. Click on that while logged in and you'll get all their future tweets. 

Things to Remember

1. Your tweets are public unless you change your privacy settings. If you want to do this log in and click on 'settings'. At the bottom of the screen is a 'protect my tweets' tickbox. This means only people who you have approved as followers will see them. This is good if you want privacy, but bad if you want followers as it makes it impossible for people to casually come across you. 

2. You will probably get followed by some strangers. But not too many and you can block people from following you if they are being annoying. 

3. People may not be who they seem to be. You can sign up with any name on Twitter and there is no identity check. Someone may be tweeting as Lady Gaga and it turns out to be your cousin Eric. 

4. You can get lots of free and paid for apps for 3G phones that mean you can tweet from your phone. They vary in what they offer a reliability so look at reviews in the app store before you download anything. 

5. Never ever ever ever share anything you would not mind everyone knowing. For example, no email addresses or phone numbers unless you immediately want to get spammed to Herne and back. It's also easy to fall into the #tmi (too much information) trap as tweeting can feel like you're just texting your friends. 

6. Twitter.com recently announced that at any one time 3% of the servers were taken up with tweets about Justin Bieber (small teen canadian singer who teen girls can not get enough of). So don't bother tweeting about him because there's enough info out there already. 

Tweeters I would recommend

• Littlelixie - this is me!
• Craft Gossip - be warned, they send A LOT of tweets. 
• Craft - the O'Reilly craft magazine. I love their blog.
• Ravelry - got to be done really
• CraftyPod's Sister Diane - the Dude. 

There are zillions of others - try Nickerjac, Woollywormhead, yarnharlot, or the name of just about any crafter or shop you can think of. 

If you found this blog post useful then tweet it to your mates!

Episode 20 of the Podcast

(It may be a few hours before episode 20 shows up below. Click here if it isn't showing.

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First Block of Interviews are from....

• KnitExpo
• Knitting and Crochet Guild
• Woolly Wormhead
• Toft Alpaca
• Anova Books

Explanation of swiss darning.

Second block of interviews are from...

• Knitting 4 Fun
• EasyKnits
• Coco Knits
• KnitExpo (link above)
• IKnit London

Try twitter.com and search for #iknit. Click on that last link to go straight to that search on twitter (no log in needed). Tutorial on "Twitter for Knitters" will be on my blog soon. Plus Follow Me on Twitter.

SkipNorth knitting holiday - more information here.

Third block of interviews are from...

• Woolly Thoughts. Illusions knitting gallery here. 
• Wensleydale Longwool Sheepshop
• The Bothered Owl
• Hedgehog Equipment
• Artisan Threads

Extra links:

• Excellent podcasts from CraftyPod
• Six weeks of free patterns from Duo Fibreworks

Competition Winner & Your Go To Books

Following my review of Knitting Green last week, all those who commented before end of Sunday were entered into a draw to win it in return for giving us their go to book. Here is what was suggested (click on the pics to go to the book's amazon page):

From Annette: A true classic. I also go to this one all the time.

 

"The first book I used a pattern out (tomten jacket) and when I have knitting question I almost always can find the answers in that book." 

From AlisonK: Another classic. SPM is a genius and she's working on a new book....

"Set out in clear terms a lot of hints & tips I just hadn't known with being a self-taught knitter who mainly works in isolation. This book is also responsible for the fact that I ever succeeded in knitting a sock, as the first one I did was to Stephanie's recipe." 

From Charlotte and Nocton4: One that got a lot of people back into the swing of things. 

"The book that got me back into knitting as a twenty year old. Now I pass it on to all my friends who want to knit, and we use the diagram pictures for them to learn a new technique. I can leave the book with them, and then next time we meet for a knit session, suddenly they have finished an item! Still occasionally look up kitchener stitch in it myself... "

"Always to hand and so great with clear advice."

From Katy: For £4.50 this has got to be a must-have book. I love my copy.

"So many projects of different types, so many useful hints and tips (though the instructions for a circular cast on defeated me!) It's the book I took away with me this summer and I didn't feel the lack of any other knitting book."

From Becky: An unusual one this but I can see that it would be handy.

"I knit stuff from that book all the time - when I need a quick gift, there is always something in there to help me out."

From Me! This is another by Ann Budd and I really do use it *all* the time.

So....without further ado the winner is....

Which is Nocton4 according to the list of commenters on that post. I've left a message on your blog so email me your address and the book is yours!

BTW - I am destashing some books and patterns myself at the moment on ebay. Pop over for a look and grab a bargain. All with free postage.

These are a few of my favourite things

There have been some brilliant blog posts recently. Here are my favourites.

• Knitting on the Green - Liz's review of KnitCamp

I foolishly thought the KnitCamp saga had come to an end but no, it rumbles on. Many people without refunds and the organiser went on a two week holiday straight afterwards and has posted a rather odd summary post on the official blog. But what was it really like for people who were there? Liz has written a 5 (so far) part review of the different elements. All are very well written and have brilliant photographs with them. I've linked to part 1 but you will easily find all the others. Stick around for her book reviews too. 

• Craftypod - Review of 'Brave New Knits'

I've seen patterns from this book creeping into the friend activity screen on ravelry and Sister Diane gives us a very good review of the book itself along with lots of pictures. 

• Color Me Katie - Cat Cafes in Japan

I genuinely thought this was my idea and have often talked to Pooch about wanting to create a haven for people who adore cats but can't for whatever reason have one at home. Am so gutted this is a reality in japan. Don't suppose anyone knows of any UK ones? Katie is also a brilliant photographer.

• Good Night Gracie - Friendship Bracelets

In my teens I had these wrist to elbow on both arms and was constantly making holes in cushions having safety pinned a bracelet to it. This is a Flickr set rather than a blog because it was featured in a CRAFT blog post. I'm really tempted to make one now. Mine were nearly as good as hers when I was at the height of my powers - but she has taken it to the next level.

• Andre Joseph's Sketchblog - How to draw a shoe

I absolutely love her illustrations. Her description of how she draws this converse trainer left me open-mouthed. The first step, which I am not giving away, is so simple and easy to do but I can hear generations of art teachers turning in their graves. But hey, it certainly works for her. 

• Craft Blog - Knitted Unravelling Calender

I tweeted about this yesterday. Craft seems to assume there is some mechanism unravelling it but I can only assume a non knitter wrote that. The only good thing about frogging is the tactile 'tink tink' as each stitch pops as it disengages from the last as you gently pull.

• Lixie Makes It - Most popular and knitted designers on Ravelry

In an addition to this post...at the Romford knitting group on Sunday we discussed this briefly and the very good point was made that the best designers are often not the best teachers. But I suspect that also the best and most knitable designers are not paid anywhere near as much as the 'knitting royalty'. Makes me feel positively anarchistic!

You may have noticed that I have interspersed this post with images that are pretty much unrelated to the text. Why? 

• Purlpower - Diagnoses and the psychology of images and comments

The long suffering yet consistently witty Purlpower has had another diagnosis. The text in itself is dryly funny and engaging but she makes a good point towards the end as to why she has interspersed it with those images. But you have to read it to find out what it is. 

 

All photos via Flickr under Creative Commons Licensing. Please click on the photos for creators' credits.

Tattoos

I've been thinking about getting a tattoo again. I wobble between 'meh' and 'meh', but pronounced differently. Part of the reason can be seen on the second row of today's mosaic - all inspired by 'sashiko'.

1. Cherry Blossom Sashiko Square, 2. 9784277311711, 3. japanese quilt1, 4. the complete works, 5. made of stars, 6. half made of stars, 7. Golden Circles Table Runner, 8. modern sashiko kit complete, 9. Sashiko -Asagao-, 10. Block 3, 11. 9784277311711, 12. Sashiko a´la Diddi

Pretty cool huh? You can click on the credits for the photographer's Flickr page. Such a skill with the camera. That kind of body art is just divine. I can imagine not getting bored looking at that for the next eleventy years. Although of course as a woman I can expect my body to do more waxing and waning than a man, especially within the next decade.

My love of sashiko took a bit of a blow this morning. I was ready half an hour early so decided to mellow out with some stitching. A new pattern arrived yesterday so I was all set when I found I Could Not Find The Sashiko Thread That Was There Yesterday. Grrr. I may have to use normal embroidery cotton which I dare say will be ok but it's not the same and will give a different look to the end result. But then considering I still haven't worked out what to do with any of my finished panels that's not such a big concern. It's definitely more 'process' than 'product' round here.

Tutorial Tuesday - on a Wednesday

One of the things I like best about Ravelry is the 'Friend Activity' page. To reach it you log in, click on 'friends' in the 'my notebook' menu, and then click on the 'friend activity' tab.

I have this as my ravelry bookmark page so it is the first one I look at each and every time I log in. It is fascinating to see what my Ravelry Friends are knitting, favouriting, queueing and commenting on. Often I'll see someone queue or favourite something and then see mutual friends do the same until almost the whole screen is made up of one pattern. These are the 'must make' patterns of the moment and often are just transient. However, some of them stick and become the pattern giants of the knitting and crochet world.

While cruising the forums I saw a thread where a knitter had asked how to find a list of all the most popular patterns. Someone had kindly responded with not just one, but three lists! Each subtly different.

In the following descriptions if you click on the links you'll be taken to Ravelry to the results of the search itself. These lists depend on Ravelry users so may have changed between me posting this and you looking at them.

The first search was for 'Most Popular'.

Looking at the top 8 (since my screen is displaying 4 in a row) we have...
1. Ishbel by Ysolda Teague (shawl)
2. Baby Surprise Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmermann (baby cardigan)
3. Fetching by Cheryl Niamath (gloves)
4. February Lady Sweater by Pamela Wynne (cardigan)
5. Monkey by Cookie A (socks)
6. Clapotis by Kate Gilbert (shawl/scarf)
7. Calorimetry by Kathryn Schoendorf (head band)
8. Turn a Square by Jared Flood (hat)


The second search is for 'Most Projects'.

Again, let's look at the top 8.
1. Clapotis by Kate Gilbert (shawl/scarf)
2. Fetching by Cheryl Niamath (gloves)
3. Baby Surprise Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmermann (baby cardigan)
4. Monkey by Cookie A (socks)
5. Calorimetry by Kathryn Schoendorf (head band)
6. February Lady Sweater by Pamela Wynne (cardigan)
7. Saartje's Booties by Saartje de Bruijn (baby booties)
8. Jaywalker by Grumperina (socks)

Probably no surprise that 6 of the 'most popular' are also in the 'most projects' list.

Lastly, we have the 'Most Favourites'.

Top 8 time.
1. February Lady Sweater by Pamela Wynne (cardigan)
2. Saartje's Booties by Saartje de Bruijn (baby booties)
3. Star Crossed Slouchy Beret by Natalie Larson (hat)
4. Owls by Kate Davies (Jumper)
5. French Press Felted Slippers by Melynda Bernardi
6. Lace Ribbon Scarf by Veronik Avery
7. Shalom Cardigan by Meghan McFarlane
8. Travelling Woman by Liz Abinante (shawl)

Here we see only two cross-overs from the previous lists.

"So what?" I hear you ask.

Well, anyone noticed the names appearing in these lists? Or rather, noticed the names that are not appearing? I know I've only arbitrarily taken the top 8 but there is no Norah Gaughan, no Ann Budd, no Kaffe Fassett, no Debbie Bliss. In fact no mainstream names other than Elizabeth Zimmermann. Jared Flood and Ysolde Teague are certainly big news in the knitting world but still relative newcomers and might not be on most people's lists of the top knitting designers in the world. And yet....these lists show whose patterns knitters are really enjoying. Which ones they like and which ones they come back to time and again.

And for me that is a very interesting thing.

Book Review - Knitting Green

I am lucky enough to have been given two copies of this book and so am giving one copy away to the winner of this competition.

This is an Ann Budd book, which in itself is a pretty good indication that this will make a useful addition to your knitting library. Her book "The Knitter's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns" is my go-to book for projects and in fact I've got two on the needles at the moment using patterns from that book. This book is not quite in the same league, in that it has 20 patterns with set sizes, but it has the same straight forward layout you can expect from her books.

Knitting Green follows a now familiar format of interspersing knitting patterns with short essays on topics relevant to the book's theme. I doubt whether anyone has ever bought a knitting book for the essays, but they're well written and interesting to dip into. The patterns are an interesting variety of scarves, shawls, socks, accessories and tops with a skirt and a hat thrown in for luck. There is a lot of worsted and chunky in evidence although there is a fingering weight shawl and jumper. Each of the patterns has an eco-mum type name like "Tree-Hugger Pullover" or "Back to Nature Hat" or even the "Save the Streams Slippers". Photos are very good - showing all those details knitters want rather than Vogue-esque arty shots. You can see all the patterns on Ravelry here.

All-in-all the book is very much visual comfort eating with nothing scary, challenging or too on-trend. It's the sort of book where you really enjoy looking through it and can instantly spot at least three things you could cast on straight away.

So...to get your hands on this lovely book just leave a comment on this post giving your "go to" knitting, crochet or crafting book. All comments posted before 11.30pm UK time on Sunday 5th Sept will enter the random draw!

Podcast!

Crammed full of rumour and intrigue!

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