#WWKIP

Saturday 13 June 2015 was World Wide Knit In Public day, and if I had been more organised I would have been at the Bath Assembly Rooms to join the other knitters there. It looked a lot of fun, but as with many things, I only found out about it at the last minute.

Instead I did my own KIP mission around Cheltenham. I packed my essentials and jumped on the bus.

The weather was not helpful; my first location was on a damp bench (I took a plastic carrier bag with me to sit on!) under a tree next to the Neptune fountain. It had just started mizzling again (that misty rain that gets everywhere and for which umbrellas are little defence), but the tree kept most of it off me.

I had chosen to work on a new pair of cotton socks for myself, something that I can knit from memory. Several people watched me knit as they walked past, and one lady did come over and ask me what I was knitting. She said she knits, but she had never seen anyone using 4 needles before.

After about half an hour, the mizzle turned to proper rain and the drips from the tree were finding their way onto my hands. Time to decamp and find somewhere under cover. I walked to one of the two shopping arcades in the town and found a space on a bench there. I alternated keeping my eyes down and looking up and knitting by feel. People are a bit wary of direct eye contact, though many were either glued to their phones or on their own missions to get in, around, and out of town as quickly as possible. I did catch a few people watching me though, and several young children were very curious as they were walked past me by their otherwise distracted adults. I got some smiles, which was nice, and I heard a couple of people talking about knitting once they had moved past me.

I stayed there for about an hour, and managed to convince a nice chap to take a photo of me as proof.

I had hoped to do a final KIP in Boston Tea Party, with a cup of tea and a slice of their wonderful berry yoghurt flapjack, but when I got there they were packed and not a table to be had. So I had to admit defeat, and did a final few rounds of the sock while waiting for my bus home instead.

Next year I shall be more organised ....

Soon to go a-viking!

Getting really excited now as in just a few days my daughter and I are embarking on a lightning raid to Denmark! We have 4 nights in the centre of Copenhagen, from which we will venture to Roskilde for the viking museum and also into Sweden across The Bridge *squee*. Yes, that bridge, from that SkandNoir series. We have been learning some Danish, not so that we blend in (I'm reliably informed that the moment I open my mouth every local will immediately speak English anyway) but because it seems rude not to at least try. I can count to 10, ask where the toilet is, get a table for 2 and almost certainly mispronounce everything on the menu but I'll know roughly what I'm trying to order. It's been about 6 years since I travelled east rather than west, and I am so looking forward to it.

Meanwhile, my efforts in writing knitting patterns are being rewarded with a steady trickle of sales at Hare's Moon Yarns. I have published 3 so far: Medici the Hare, a newborn size baby cardigan with optional scratch mitts, and most recently a pattern for socks for feet that are wider than normal or for those with swollen ankles. The long-term plan is to move to my own website next year, and also publish a collection of patterns in a book/download rather than just individual ones. But small steps....

On the needles at the moment:
* 2 jumpers with shoulder buttons for 2 little boys
* a shocking pink shawl/scarf in extremely thin random yarn, possibly cotton, for me
* a pair of bunny slippers commissioned from a co-worker

On the wheel:
Gotland cream, will be chunky weight once plied

We recently also made some blackberry and vanilla jam, which was distributed at work.

 

It's been a while

It feels like weeks since I did any spinning, but it's actually only been 3 or 4, and for much of that time I have been busily knitting and writing. The Hares are coming along nicely, and I've also been working on a pair of socks for my mother-in-law. For those who haven't been here from the start, my MIL has diabetes and her feet swell up so that conventional mass-produced socks tend to constrict her ankles too much. So I hand knit her socks, with loose tops, which are more comfortable for her.

I decided to treat her to something other than the usual stocking stitch socks this time, and have been doing some simple lace instead:

They do feel a bit on the small side though, so they may end up as a donation to one of the other residents in my MIL's care home and I'll make her another pair. As she lives 4000 miles away, I can't ask her to try one on while I'm knitting it just to check the size!

I've just bought some more undyed fibre - some Cheviot, and some Lincoln - so more adventures in dying and spinning will follow soon :)

Now, back to the socks...

But not just any socks, oh no! These are Cielebration socks :) I started these on a whim while at the memorial weekend for my dearest friend Ciel who died back in January this year. The socks are for my daughter, as now she is all growed up I rarely get a chance to knit her anything anymore.



I am 3/4 of the way through 2 pairs of denim-coloured double knit weight socks for Mother-in-Law's crew at the nursing home now, and once those are done I will be starting a small project to use some of the Cielebration handspun yarn I was given by another of Ciel's friends. It will have sparkles!

I may never knit for myself again!

A couple of years ago, my mother-in-law moved into a nursing home. She suggested that I knit a few things and then she would see if anyone there would like to buy them, with the money going into Ray's account. We started with baby clothes; that may sound strange for a nursing home, but most of the residents there have large families that continually produce children, so there were plenty of takers for the little jackets and bonnets I sent over.

My mother-in-law has diabetic neuropathy. Her feet have swolen and are often cold. Shop-bought socks are too tight across the opening and dig into her ankles, so I said I would knit her a couple of pairs of socks myself. I knit fairly lose anyway but the openings are not at all tight.

People see my mother-in-law's socks because they are bright colours. I knitted a pair for the lady who has a room opposite my mother-in-law's for Christmas this year, as Candy is such a sweet lady and always pops her head round the door to say hello when I visit. Candy's socks were purple with mint hearts around the top.

Earlier this year, my dearest friend died. She was also a passionate knitter and had several pairs of hand-knitted socks that her husband and I agreed could go to the nursing home for the residents.

Today I got a letter from my mother-in-law. We talk on the phone every 10 days or so, but we also write conventional letters as well because it is too expensive for her to call me overseas. In her letter, she asks if I can knit the multi-coloured socks like the ones we sent from my friend, and has gven me a list of new colours that people at the nursing home would like their socks to be in. I knit them on double-pointed needles and we sell them for $5 which covers the yarn, and I'm really pleased that I can make something that so many people are finding useful.

It just means that I may never have the time to knit anything for myself ever again.