Damn, Knit & Blast It

I’ve had problems with the cats and Haven. It’s finished but there have been squabbles!

Firstly, Mewsley has been rather jealous of all the attention Thug has been getting.

She decided that SHE was going to do the snugglablity testing for Haven. After much pawing (and a little drooling) she decided that it was soft enough for me. She was thorough in her work, taking all evening sitting on Haven and requiring a hefty shove to get her to relinquish my knitting!

Thug, of course, didn’t want to be out done.  He decided that he’d knit a few rows for me, just to make sure he had some buy in on this project…

Here’s the stitch detail- I think Thug Knitted this bit…

So would you like to see the finished scarf on a human?

Here you are…

It is rather long – mine is 2.3 meters! I did 27 pattern repeats, as decreed in the pattern, and it is long but the length seems right when put on, especially as it’s quite wide too. I’ll be wearing this over a winter coat so my whole frame will be bigger.

Also, if I get caught in the rain or it’s so cold my ears hurt when I’m dashing down the road to the station, I wear a scarf wrapped around my head so need extra length – like this…

My ears were good and toasty by the end of this photo shoot, I can tell you!

One small problem with the cocoon though.

It sheds.

I live with two hairy cats (and a hairy boyfriend) so I’m quite tolerant of fluffage but even I suffered after wrapping it around my head for the photo. I had a serious case of “fibre strands in eyes”. Fortunately, I don’t wear contact lenses and could remove the fluff easily. This is probably a yarn to be careful with if you are a lens wearer.

Sitting here typing, I just wondered where Haven was?? It looks nippy tomorrow, I might wear it when I go out….

Hmmmm…..seems someone borrowed it for a night out on the tiles!! I got this photo from the local paparazzi, snapped outside a local kitty nightclub!!!

What do you make after a cute, short sleeved cotton cardigan when, frankly, it’s too cold and wet to wear it without a thermal layer underneath and a sou’wester over the top?

A huge, warm, snugglicious scarf of course!

It is Haven from Kim Hargreaves’ book, Heartfelt.

Ben bought me this book last Christmas.  I fell in love with Haven after Yvonne at Woolly Women (Rowan’s knitting group in Bluewater on the 4th Wednesday of the month)showed me her completed Haven.  It was breathtaking. The one big downer of my new job is that I can’t get to Woolly Women any more

Hello to any Wooly Women reading this! I’m thinking of you!

I’ve had the yarn, Rowan’s Cocoon, in stash since Christmas – does that make me a good little stash buster for using stash yarn? The colour is Alpine – a beautiful, almost white, silvery grey.

I did at least a quarter of the scarf (one whole ball) while queuing to get the Yarn Harlot to sign a book for me. Everyone else in the queue had a sock, I just had to be different!  The darned thing was so heavy I had to flip one end over my shoulder. I must have looked cold!

Then came Sunday morning. I woke up really early – surprising as I’d  gone to bed shattered after I-Knit day on Saturday. Half asleep, I made coffee and knit for a hour before going to meet the Guilty Knitters for an I-Knit day debriefing session.

“I wonder how many repeats I’ve done?”, I said while happily pawing everybody’s haul.

I looked closely at my scarf.

“Ahhhrggg!! I made a mistake!!!”

I’d managed to make a huge blunder while I was half asleep on Sunday morning. I had to sit and frog about 10 inches of scarf.

Bugger.

One of the Guilty Knitters (who I had previously thought was such a lovely person )was so thrilled that she’d finally seen me make a blunder,  grabbed my camera and captured the moment…

…My face says it all….

You’ve had a sneak preview of Geno in action at I-Knit Day, now to give you the knitty gritty and the completed knit report. And some gratuitous Thug pictures because he was complaining (meowing) loudly that he hasn’t got enough blog time.

So here she is, the finished Geno.

I am still basking in the fact that, when I approached the table (wearing Geno) at I-Knit for the Yarn Harlot to sign my book, the first words she said to me were, “nice sweater”.  I’m sure she was saying that to everyone in a hand knit but I’m still gonna think of that every time I wear Geno and puff up a bit with pride.

I’m really pleased with the fit. I knit a size 10 – hmmmm size 10 in a Rowan mag fits me and a size 8 in an RYC booklet is too big. Sort it out Rowan!

The back is plain stocking stitch. I was tempted to do it in the lace pattern but it did seem to work better as a “sensible” garment with a plain (although boring to knit) back. Purely subjective.

See what you think…

Something I didn’t appreciate from the Rowan photo, that is really cute about Geno, is the slightly puffy sleeve detail.  Achieved by a rapid “k2tog” decrease in the last couple of rows before you cast off,  I really like this detail…

Talking of detail, here’s the front lacy stuff…

Geno has been a total pleasure to knit – even the sewing up seem to go well. The rib was thought out to give a “spare” stitch for the seams so when I sewed up (using mattress stitch, of course) you really couldn’t see the join…

For those observant Thug fans out there – Yes. I am sewing up, resting on Thug’s body.
This may seem cruel (don’t phone the RSPCA yet) but I really have no choice. He insists he is involved and supervises the sewing up as this picture shows…

I lead my life under the weight of a large furry ginger blob!

Once I’d knit and sewn up Geno, I had the button dilemma.

I tried these white ones from my button stash…

Too stark…

I bought these ones and thought, “Too stripy and attention grabbing”…

Then I found these lilac shell buttons in John Lewis – in a pack of 30 buttons (I needed six!) – I guess I’ll have to knit more purple…

Those are the ones for me!

At this point in my blogging I felt a scrabbling at my lap…

Heard a plaintive meowing at my side…

“Meow! I wanna be on the blog” he said. “I helped you knit Geno. I helped sew Geno up.  Show a picture of me! My fans deserve it!”

So here he is. Thug, with the Geno he helped create  (told you it was gratuitous!!)

I have lots to tell you – I’ve finished Geno and started a new project. But I’m not going to tell you about that.

Yesterday, I, and a large proportion of the knitters in this part of the world, went to I-Knit Day!!

I had a heck of a lot of fun

Here we go, a potted account of my day.

I went to I Knit Day and…

• Resolved that I had too much yarn and mustn’t come home with any more. I amazingly managed this feat but kinda fell off the wagon in other knitterly spending ways…
• Met up with all the Guilty Knitters at Victoria Starbucks and had a very enjoyable “knit ‘n’ coffee” session to start the day off right.
• Got wet walking to the show and queuing in the pouring rain to get in.
• Met up with “my fan base”  in the queue. I was thumped for being “insufferable” and having “Yarn Harlot delusions”  by the other  Guilty Knitters when I used that phrase )I should say, “met up with online and offline friends in the queue”! They either recognised my face or from the freshly completed Geno I was was wearing!(Sneak previews of me wearing Geno in the photos – I’ll blog it properly next – I promise!  Big hello to Rita, Yvonne, Feltboots, Josiekitten and Sairia **Susan Waves across the Interweb**
• Collected every free badge I saw

• Groped lovely sheepy yarn
• Bought some 2.25mm Lantern Moon Sox Stix- a luxury but I have a project in mind that needs this size DPN and I don’t have them and the baggie was so pretty and it makes sense not to have to pay postage and the socks will go quicker on these luxury needles and……enough justification yet??

• Queued in the rain and got very wet to get into the Yarn Harlot talk. She is a funny, engaging and intelligent speaker. I was rapt throughout but particular by the fact that the brains of Knitters, along with meditating Buddhist  Monks,  use theta brainwaves. This is the brain state you are in when you are driving down the motorway and realise that you have no recollection of the last 50 miles! I loved being in the middle of a huge group, all knitting and intently listening – the only sounds were the Yarn Harlot’s voice, the driving rain and clicking needles

• Walked up the road for a coffee and got wet and bedraggled.  Are you noticing a theme here? Judie, Uknitty and I found a little cafe where the “very nice man” took our photo for us.

I made the mistake trying to take a photo of myself. I don’t photograph well. I am seriously NOT photogenic. Judie says I have a demon troll living inside me who can only be seen in photographs. I prove her right with this awful photo of me, apparently smuggling a spare buttock under my chin.

• Made a donation to Breast Cancer Research in exchange for a go on the  4 meter knitting needles. That’s right….4 METER NEEDLES!! I bet this doesn’t get taken on the train….

• Then I went and groped more yarn. For variety, I groped some fabulously soft roving – I wanted to buy some just to pet it but I was worried Thug would get jealous.
• Listened to a talk by Jane Waller about the designs in her book, A Stitch In Time. An interesting talk, marred by the awful acoustics and having to strain to hear. Do you remember my Top Secret project? The sample I knit that I couldn’t show you? It was for this book when it’s revised and republished.
• Groped yarn – again….
• Learnt how to make tiny Teddy Bear and Barbie sized buttons from Fimo with Sandra Polley, author of The Knitted Teddy Bear (a book on my Christmas wish list) and spent a long time AHHHing at the display of the Bears from the book.
• Watched the  Stitch in Time fashion show. Garments made up to preview the publishing of A Stitch In Time – due out 13th November 2008. Guess what? Top Secret was there!! And even better it was the finale of the show

  

  I even got a piccy  standing next to Susan Crawford of KnitOnTheNet who was modelling the garment.

  Full piccies and detailswhen the book is out.

  

• Nearly flipped when  I saw that the I-Knit stand had ALL of the Barbara Walker Treasuries. I have wanted these for years but hadn’t been able to find them. I had a major moment of weakness and bought all 4 of them

• Bought a yarn harlot book and queued, knitting of course, for 50 mins to get in signed by the author.

She stayed till gone 7pm making sure everyone who wanted an autograph got one. That’s dedication – Thank you Yarn Harlot

• Had a final grope of yarn
• got very wet going home (again) but didn’t care – I’d had a fantastic day