Skip to main content

I'm back!

Unlike my last big trip, this one was full of fibre highlights. The weather in Dublin was shocking - it was colder than in Melbourne, so I bought myself some laceweight and went and had a beer.
The we went to Portugal, where they sell yarn by weight - unlabelled, but lovely, and super, super cheap. I bought nearly a kilogram of yarn for a jumper for Leon. I ended up posting that back sea mail, which is good because I did quite a lot of shopping later on. I wanted to get a picture of the yarn shop there, but they didn't speak English, and were not overly friendly, so I thought I had better not.
I met up with Jen  in London and she took me on a yarn crawl. It was lovely to see her, and the yarn shops were amazing.

Then I went to Cockermouth and met up with Nicola and her sister Rachel , whose blog I read. It was amazing to see Nicola and so nice to meet Rachel in real life, although I feel like I sort of know her already. Woolfest was amazing. There were some sheep there, but it was more about all the amazing yarn.  So much prettiness! I bought two jumpers worth of British breeds Aran and quite a lot of hand dyed lace and sock weight.

 












O
One highlight was meeting Kate Davies, who is not just a talented designer, but so lovely as well.
Seeing her sample garments made me want to knit everything she has every designed, starting with Warriston, which I did buy the yarn for. 
We spend four days in the Lake district and there were sheep EVERYWHERE. I don't know what breed most of them were, but there was a large variety. Tomorrow I'll tell you about the lovely knitting I did while I was away, but right now I need to go unpack.

Comments

  1. Oh my, you have a photo of yourself with Nicola and Kate Davies! How awesome! It looks like you had a great trip, looking forward to catching up

    ReplyDelete
  2. Did I mention how much I loved seeing you? Please come back soon :-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous30 June, 2012

    What a wonderful trip! Meeting Kate Davies, I am so jealous. Those sheep in the picture are Herdwicks. I can't wait to see your holiday yarn. Welcome back.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Geogradiant MKAL Part 1 - that was unexpected (spoilers)

Stephen West released the first MKAL clue on Thursday night. I started knitting it without looking at spoilers. When I got up on Friday he had sent through an "alternative" clue one. I then went and had a look at the spoiler thread to try to work out what was going on. Which was that some people thought the pattern looked like a "German hate symbol". I knit on anyway, since I was half-way through. Then he took down the original clue, replacing it with a mitred square in garter stitch. The Ravelry forums and Instagram are a complete shit-show, even though Rav is being moderated. It's been a bit disheartening, having something that is usually quite light and fun weighed down with all this. I admire Stephen's quick and sensitive response to this drama. I also feel that anything can look like anything if you squint. To me this looks like a Celtic knot. I think mine is pretty, and I'll knit on through all crises. 

Linky Wednesday - the one with the drama

The drama about the Stephen West MKAL  continues, and I can't be bothered with it. It's meant to be a fun, interesting, communal knit and and that's not what this year has turned in to. Stephen has done his best in a difficult situation, but I'm just not feeling it. Meanwhile, Israel is at war, and we (as a country) are going to vote "no" on a referendum that asks for basic consideration for Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islanders.  So yeah, lots of turmoil here. It's very tiring. I'm knitting a sock and considering what happens next.  Luckily the reading was dramatic in a good way. I'm reading a NetGalley review copy of Last Summer at the Lake House and it's great.  Super dramatic family drama about three sisters who loose their father unexpectedly and then find out that the family has secrets. I 've nearly finished it and I don't know what I'm going  to read next. I've got a bit of a break between review books, so maybe Sta

Mussleburgh musings

I made a Mussleburgh hat earlier in the year, and even though I thought I was following the directions exactly it did not come out quite right.  It was a little bit loose. My head is 51 cm, my gauge was 7 stitches, so according to the pattern I knit the right size. It's also a little bit shorter than I would like it. Too long for a beanie, too short for a good turn-up. I couldn't work out why. I still wore it, but it was not quite right. When I decided to knit one for Elise I knew I wanted to make it longer, and tighter. After I finished Elise's (with 24 fewer stitches) I realised something about mine: Now, this is a knit tube. I know how to knit tubes. When I make sleeves or socks, they don't balloon out in the middle. So I decided to reblock it. The instructions actually specifically say to fold it inside each other after blocking, but I probably folded it and dried it on my head, because that's how I block my hats. Not this time: Now it's longer and thinner