Dorothy Does

Dorothy Does Yarnwise!

Wed, 08 May 2013 07:49:00 -0400

Well, it’s official: I’m famous. The fabulous people at Yarnwise magazine, in their latest edition, are running a (six-page, no less!) feature on my knitting exploits. Never has a knitting magazine been bought by so many members of the same family!

As you’ll see from the images Yarnwise have kindly shared with me, beautiful, almost-four-year-old Ava (soon to be flower girl at our wedding next month) is featured modelling her finger-knitted necklace. Her dad Terry promptly enquired as to where he might purchase a copy of said magazine - I only wish I’d been there to see him stood with it at the counter at Smiths!

Yarnwise have also included a copy of my ‘Ahoy Me Hearties’ dishcloth pattern - so I’m pretty chuffed to have been published for the very first time. Just don’t tell me if you happen to find any mistakes…

You can find Yarnwise on Facebook, Twitter or visit Yarnwise.co.uk

Molly's Den

Sat, 13 Apr 2013 20:09:50 -0400

Today I made an awesome new find, courtesy of a tip off from my lovely friend Charlotte - she told me about an antique and vintage warehouse in Bournemouth called Molly’s Den.

I’m collecting various bits and bobs for our wedding in June at the moment, so I went along for a good rummage. The warehouse is HUGE - it’s two floors packed with goodies (as well as a cafe, which unfortunately I didn’t have time to enjoy on this trip).

The price tags range from bargainous, to reasonable, to fairly pricey. But regardless of whether or not you make a purchase, it’s a fantastic day out if you love a root around vintage ware like I do. What’s more, the staff couldn’t have been more friendly and helpful - I left with several armfuls (lamps, fabrics and antique cutlery) and a very friendly chap carried it all to my car for me. Check out this booty:

I was so tempted by this beautiful bureau:

If I was in the market for small people furniture, I’d have definitely snapped up this 1940s high chair:

I just loved this post box:

One of my favourite finds was this model lifeboat, which my father-in-law (the current coxswain of Swanage lifeboat) informs me is a Solent class RNLI lifeboat. I’d have treated him to it but it was £199…

You can find out more on the Molly’s Den website, on their Facebook page or follow them on Twitter. I’ll definitely be paying another visit very soon.

With Love From Paris

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 17:10:28 -0400

This evening my hands are sore and my hair is grey with dust - it was the first day of my week off work, that I’ll be spending at our new house, stripping pant, sanding woodwork and painting ceilings with PVA, in preparation for our plasterer arriving on Wednesday morning. I’m knackered but so satisfied (especially now, after a hot shower and with a glass of warmed red wine in my hand!) - with every stroke of the sandpaper, it feels like we’re revealing the real house, hidden beneath dirt, cobwebs and what feels like dozens of layers of paint, applied over the last hundred years.

But it’s very hard work and I was there on my own today, after Matt started his new job - old and, as yet, unfamiliar houses make some strange noises when you’re there alone, especially in the gale force winds we’ve been experiencing in Swanage today!

What really brightened my day was a little parcel waiting on the doormat, addressed to me. When I unwrapped it, I found a beautiful card from my best friend and bridesmaid Clemency, who had written to thank me for a wonderful weekend in Paris - typically thoughtful of her!

Tucked inside the package, next to the card, was a little bundle wrapped in tissue paper - it encased the most beautiful, embroidered, 100-year-old, silk postcard; a metal Eiffel Tower pin badge; and a set of antique, Parisian stitch markers - each charm depicting an iconic symbol of French life.

I’m so thrilled with my gifts and will treasure them forever - not only beautiful and thoughtful in their own right, but a reminder of a wonderful memory with some of my best and oldest friends in the world. Thanks, Clem xxx

Le Brunch à L'Oisive Thé

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 10:41:44 -0500

This has quite possibly been the most exciting week of my life to date. On Thursday, Matt and I completed on the purchase of our very first home. You may recall some months ago that I wrote about having an offer turned down on a lovely flat with a gurt big garden - thank goodness we did! We now own (own!) a beautiful three-storey, end-of-terrace house only a few minutes’ walk from the beach. Granted, it’s smelly, damp, dusty and half of the downstairs floorboards are rotten. But it’s ours. And we couldn’t be happier.

This is the beautiful hand-drawn picture our sister-in-law Kim drew for us as a house-warming present - it’ll take pride of place on the wall. Just soon as it’s been sugar-soaped, and PVA’ed, and plastered, and sanded, and primed, and painted.

No sooner than we’d picked up the keys to our lovely new the house, I had to leave Matt behind and head for Paris (such a hardship!). Kim and I decided, as we’re both getting married in the coming months and have several mutual friends, that we’d be extravagant and book an apartment in central Paris for the weekend as a joint hen do.

And it was incredible. The apartment was stunning, in authentic shabby chic fashion; the food was predictably out of this world (we ate at Le Cafe du Commerce on Saturday night - I had veal’s liver pan-fried in parsley butter, which literally melted in my mouth); and the city itself was everything I’d hoped it would be: elegant, cultural, historical, fascinating and achingly stylish.

We began Saturday with fresh coffee, fruit and pastries from the patisserie on the corner near our apartment (directly under the Pantheon), then caught the metro to Les Puces (‘The Fleas’), the famous Parisian flea market in Saint-Ouen.

The prices range from gob-smackingly expensive to very affordable - and don’t be afraid to haggle. I picked up three metal coat hooks painted purple (for the wall in the porch of our new house) and two large printing press stamps (a B for my initial and an M for Matt), which will probably find a home on our mantelpiece.

After several hours at Les Puces, we happened upon a tiny cafe and gorged ourselves on cold meats, cheeses, bread and creme brulee, washed down with a carafe or two of red wine. We finished the afternoon with a stroll around the very vast and very moving Pere Lachaise cemetery, where the likes of Edith Piaf, Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde are buried.

But, aside from visiting Les Puces, what I had most been looking forward to was a trip to L’Oisive Thé, a tiny cafe on a quiet square in the village-like, hilly Butte aux Cailles area, dedicated entirely to knitting and tea - heaven!

Subscribers to Mollie Makes may well remember a feature they ran back in May last year about L’Oisive Thé - it was back then that I scribbled their website address down and vowed that I would squeeze a visit into our Parisian weekend.

Sadly, we weren’t in town at the right time to join in with the weekly knitting group Tricot Thé, but L’Oisive Thé is renowned for its brunch from 11am on weekends so we were keen to indulge ourselves.

Le brunch consisted of a glass of fresh orange juice and either a tea, coffee or hot chocolate; two soft-boiled eggs with crusty French bread soldiers smothered (by me!) in salty butter; a thick slab of the butteriest brioche I’ve ever tasted (so delicious!) with raspberry jam - and that was just the first course!

Second course(!) was a choice of four pastries, served with a green salad - I chose the goat’s cheese pastry: delicieux!

Once almost too full to move, I thought it only fitting to treat myself to some luxurious and spendy yarn - well, when in a Parisian knitting cafe, do as the Parisian knitters do! And there was no shortage of yarn to feast my eyes on and squidge:

Spoilt for choice but limited by my purse, I chose two skeins to take home, both Alice by Juno Fibre Arts - 70% baby alpaca, 20% silk, 10% cashmere. I shan’t tell you how much they cost but needlesstosay, I spent more on yarn than I did at dinner on Saturday night!

I also treated my dear friend Becky to some Lorna’s Laces worsted merino in ‘Turtle Rodeo’ (810) for her 30th birthday - she was admiring it so I’ve promised to knit her a cowl ready for our camping trip in August, to keep her warm in the evenings around the campfire. Here I am looking rather pleased with my stash:

After a stroll around the grounds of the Louvre, we made our way to Pont de l’Archeveche, a footbridge over the River Seine, whose railings are covered with what the French call ‘cadenas d’amour’: small padlocks, painted with the names, initials or significant dates of couples and lovers from across Paris and the world.

As we were there to celebrate our impending nuptials, Kim and I, as well of some of our girlfriends, added our own padlocks to the bridge - I painted our initials and the date of our wedding onto mine with red nail varnish.

It was a weekend I’ll never forget and I can’t wait to return as soon as I can, hopefully with Matt, and I be making sure we visit L’Oisive Thé - this time for some cake!

Baby Mocs For The Two Joannas

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 07:04:00 -0500

When it comes to knitting, there is nothing I love more than making tiny woolly things for the unborn babies of my dearest friends. And it seems these days I have a never-ending supply of said expectant friends - I guess we’ve just reached ‘that’ age.

Most recently we learnt that my very, very dear friend Sara and her husband Mark are due a little one in July - this was truly the best news of the year so far; they’ll make incredible parents.

But before then I have another FIVE friends whose babies are due - the first of which are the Joannas: Jo K is due first in April, followed by Jo Q later in the month.

I’ve been collecting ideas for cute gifts for the small (and big!) people in my life on my Knitted Stuff Pinterest board and the Purl Bee Baby Moccasin pattern is by far my favourite - it’s also the perfect excuse for purchasing a few skeins of super soft and fuzzy baby alpaca wool.

For the booties I made, I used Blue Sky Alpaca’s Sport Weight in Natural Light Tan (504) and Natural Copper (502) as the main colours - and oddments from my own stash of red, blue and cream wool for the embroidery.

Knitting these booties is very much like knitting socks - using DPNs, I worked a ribbed cuff in the dark brown then switched to slightly larger needles and the biscuity colour to work a stocking stitch ankle section:

Next, I cast off half the stitches in the round then worked the instep on one needle:

Finally, I picked up 41 stitches around the instep and cast off edges and, back in the round, worked a ribbed sole finished with Kitchener Stitch (here’s that awesome Purl Bee tutorial I always harp on about again):

Once the mocs were finished and the loose tails had been woven in, I used duplicate stitch to add this Native American-inspired design:

The Jos were both thrilled with their mini gifts and I can’t wait to see them modeled in person on two pairs of teeny, tiny feet - only a few months to go!

Mitts For Little Thumb-Suckers

Thu, 17 Jan 2013 17:12:33 -0500

Just before Christmas, my sister-in-law Kim came to me with a problem: her one-year-old Harry was refusing to wear gloves, which, in this chilly weather we’ve been having, was far from ideal for a small person. The reason for his indignation was that he’s a thumb-sucker, and gloves somewhat get in the way of this particular past-time.

Kim had searched high and low for a pair of mittens for toddlers that kept the fingers toasty but let the thumb roam free, but had found nothing. So she asked if I could knit something up.

I tried various sites, including the vast depths of Ravelry, but couldn’t find an appropriate pattern anywhere, so I concluded that I’d have to make something up. It took me four attempts to get the sizing right and the thumb hole in the right place, but eventually I got there (not quite in time for Christmas, sadly). I used less than 50g of self-patterning, chunky yarn - nothing expensive: just 50% wool, 50% acrylic (I felt machine washing would probably be appreciated by Harry’s mum).

Harry can’t be the only toddler who refuses to wear gloves because of a love of thumb-sucking, so I thought I’d share my pattern with you for free, as a New Year’s gift!

The only vaguely tricky skills you need to attempt this pattern are: knitting in the round (I used DPNs), making a buttonhole, and Kitchener stitch (this Purl Bee tutorial is a GODSEND).

Toddler mittens for thumb-suckers

For thumb-suckers aged 12-18 months

Shopping list:

· 50g chunky yarn of your choice

· Set of 4 x 4.5mm DPNs (double-pointed needles)

· 1 stitch marker

· Tapestry needle

Jargon:

· sts = stitches

· k1p1 = knit 1, purl 1

· m1 = make 1

· k = knit

· st st = stocking stitch

· pm = place marker

· k2togtbl = knit 2 together through the back loop

· k2tog = knit 2 together

· sm = slip marker

Let’s go! (Make two mittens)

1. Cast on 24 sts and distribute evenly across 3 needles (8 sts on each needle)

2. Join in the round and work 12 rounds of k1p1 ribbing

3. Round 13: *m1, k3, repeat from * to end of round (32 sts)

4. Rounds 14-18: st st

5. Round 19: k all stitches on first needle; second needle: k3, cast off 5 sts, k to end of round

6. Round 20: k all sts on first needle; second needle: k3, turn, cast on 6 stitches (purlwise), turn, cast off 1 stitch, k to end of round

7. Rounds 21-27: st st

8. Round 28: k16, pm, k to end of round

9. Round 29: k1, k2togtbl, k to within 3 sts of marker, k2tog, k1, sm, k1, k2togtbl, k to last 3 sts in round, k2tog, k1 (28 sts)

10. Rounds 30 & 31: st st

11. Repeat rounds 29-31 (24 sts)

12. Repeat round 29 again (remove marker during this round)

13. Final round: st st

14. Distribute sts evenly on 2 needles and either graft together using Kitchener method, or turn mitten inside out and knit 1 st from each needle together until 12 sts remain on 1 needle, then cast off

15. Weave in loose tails with tapestry needle

Here is the little man, wearing his new mitts - this is his ‘Smile for the camera’ face:

And here he is, demonstrating the gloves in action:

What a cutie!

Festive Pinspiration

Sun, 23 Dec 2012 06:45:58 -0500

Seeing as we’ve only got two more days to go until The Big Day and I’ve finally got some time on my hands, having finished work and DONE ALL MY CHRISTMAS SHOPPING (yeah, man!), I thought I’d celebrate a festive project I’ve been working on for a couple of months now. Perhaps not so much a project as an obsession: my Christmas Pinterest board!

If you’re not on Pinterest, firstly, where have you been?! It’s essentially an online scrapbooking site for curating images you find and love on the web. As a crafter and lover of design, cooking and clothes, it’s a treasure chest of inspiration for me - I waste a lot of time there!

I wanted to share with you some of my favourite images from my Christmas pinboard - some are recipes, some are graphic design, some are things I want to make, some are cute printables, some are things you can buy on Etsy - click on the images and the links will take you back to the original webpage:

Christmas Jumper Challenge - Result!

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 17:00:51 -0500

The results are in! On Saturday (not Friday, as planned) I finally completed my woolly creation after three weeks’ work at every given opportunity. For each knitting session, I dutifully set my stopwatch and recorded the timings:

I’ve been manically busy since Saturday night (visiting the Jurassic Coast tattoo convention on Sunday, eating scrumptious food and being in the audience for Radio 4’s The Kitchen Cabinet in Bath on Monday, and enjoying the last Swanknitsch of the year last night) so I finally sat down to add up the hours, minutes and seconds this evening.

The result was a whopping 33 hours, 47 minutes and 41 seconds of knitting time! My sweepstake raised a slightly disappointing £14.48 for Save the Children but the charitable winner, my fiance Matt (not a fix - honest!), also donated his £3.75 winnings, bringing us to a total of £18.23. Thank you to the small gang of you who took part - the donation total may seem rather meagre but we raised enough to provide life-saving treatment for 48 children with diarrhoea. Just imagine if our knitty sweepstake goes on to save the lives of 48 children! That really does bring a warm glow to Christmas!

Now, as some of you may remember, I had originally intended to have my jumper ready for Friday 14th December, Save the Children’s Christmas Jumper Day - I had roped all my colleagues into wearing their woolly wonders too, and even bought prizes for the most impressive. Sadly, my jumper wasn’t ready in time (there was some serious stress knitting going on, as I’m sure you can imagine!) so I had to borrow Matt’s beautiful, if not slightly oversized, jumper instead. This is me and my lovely friend Catherine at the office on Friday:

Our colleagues at the RNLI made such an impressive effort; some of the outfits were fabulous - there was even a penguin onesie! Most importantly, everyone who wore a Christmas jumper put a pound in the pot and we raised a fantastic £90! I am so proud of my colleagues and so chuffed with such a great result - enough to buy two hygiene kits (with soap, towel and toothbrushes) for children living through the Syria and Gaza crises right now, as well as safe birth kits for eight women giving birth at home in vulnerable circumstances.

So on Saturday morning, I set my alarm and woke up to spend several hours frantically stitching away in an attempt to have my jumper ready to wear for the Christmas jumper pub crawl I’d organised with my friends in Swanage. Poor Matt was on the receiving end of my panic and foul mood - at one point I promised to burn the jumper the following day! (I haven’t.) Never has the sewing together of component knitted parts seemed to take so long!

In the end, I had to weave a length of red ribbon through the collar and make do:

I was still going when our friends arrived for a glass of wine before we set out to the pub!

But finally, after holding my friends up for 45 minutes, I was ready and the jumper was complete!

So the drinking began! Everyone had made a great effort and there was plenty of festive spirit (gin, sherry, rum…):

We even had a dog in antlers! (Excuse the blurry photo - this was several pubs in!)

And yet again, everyone was so wonderfully generous - not only did all of our friends put a few quid in the collection box but other customers in the pub contributed too. In the end we raised another £60! Thank you so much to everyone who donated, especially Mimi in the Snack Bar, who donated £10 when we popped by for a cocktail at the end of the night.

So the grand total raised for Save on Children stands at £168.23, which makes me a very happy girl. Together, we’ve made the world better with a few woolly, sparkly, garish and festive sweaters. Well done, folks, and merry Christmas!

Christmas Jumper Challenge - Update

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 16:42:28 -0500

Seeing as I’d not brought you an update for a few weeks, I thought I’d better post a few pictures of my Christmas jumper project, which is still -worryingly- a work in progress.

Tonight, I finally finished the first sleeve (see below), while watching La Vie En Rose, the lifestory of Edith Piaf, who was also a knitter, it turns out:

This is Matt modeling the front of my jumper (it’s a little small for him - thankfully). Note my ingenious makeshift stitch holder, consisting of a DPN and two hair bobbles (my second stitch holder seems to have gone walkies):

I’ve also finished the back of the jumper (I decided to cheat and omit the Fair Isle pattern on this side to save time) so I’ve just got one sleeve and the making-up to do - IN TWO DAYS! Fortunately I’m off to London on Thursday (to be in the audience for an edition of Radio 4’s Kitchen Cabinet - exciting!) so I’ve got four and a half hours of train journey, which should see me right - fingers crossed!

It’s not too late to take part in my sweepstake if you’d like to have a bash at guessing how many hours, minutes and seconds it’ll have taken me, by Friday, to knit this jumper - you could win some dosh and it’s all in a very good cause. Place your bets now!

Lovely London Finds

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 15:11:00 -0500

Last week I had to go to London for a meeting and I arrived a little early. So what d’you do when you’re near Regent Street and have half an hour on your hands? You treat yourself to a nose around the haberdashery floor at Liberty, that’s what! Liberty is famous for its fabrics and it really is a veritable treasure chest of loveliness - I could’ve spent all day in there!

Of course it’s also mega expensive. Amongst the yarns I found these ace knitting kits for beginners by Wool and The Gang - everything you need to complete your own basic knitted garment. Just a snip at £90! Hmm… Super if you can trust yourself with exquisite baby alpaca - when I was a beginner I stuck firmly to trusty acrylic for months until I knew I wasn’t going to muck the whole thing up!

There was a wall covered entirely with packs and spools of ribbon - it was a feast for the eyes! At this point I really struggled to resist the urge to spend!

I didn’t resist the urge entirely but I did manage to restrain myself enough to only buy Christmas presents for other people, and not myself :-)

After my meeting, I headed back to Waterloo on the tube; before I hopped on the train back to Dorset, I took a stroll round the corner to Lower Marsh, a shopping street on the south side of Waterloo station, to find the independent I Knit London shop:

You may recall that back in the summer I volunteered in the I Knit tent at Camp Bestival, but I’d never been to the actual shop. It was jam-packed with goodies and such a warm, welcoming place to pull up an armchair and settle down for a crafting session. Unfortunately I didn’t have time for that, but I did have time for a good rummage.

There were some stunning yarns on sale:

On the counter was some -wait for it- Arctic musk ox wool, blended with Bombay silk. Needless to say, it was incredibly expensive but ridiculously soft and warm. Sadly it was ever so slightly out of my price range…

Instead, I treated myself to a skein of artisan, kettle-dyed Manos del Uruguay (‘Hands of Uruguay’) Silk Blend - 30% silk, 70% Merino ultrafine. I haven’t used it yet but I have a special Christmas present project in mind that it would be just perfect for…

Knitting Adventures in Primrose Hill

Fri, 23 Nov 2012 17:25:05 -0500

Today has been the slowest day. All day I’ve been so excited to get home, pour a glass of wine and write this blog post. I’ve also been absolutely shattered - I didn’t get into bed until 1.30am and couldn’t sleep for thinking of all the ideas whirring around my brain after meeting such a talented and interesting bunch of women.

If you read my blog post yesterday you’ll know that I was invited by Save the Children to a blogger event in London last night to publicise their Christmas Jumper Day fundraising campaign. I packed a small… ahem… bag, then headed for the train station:

The journey was two and a half hours long, so I occupied myself with some serious Christmas jumper knitting:

Upon arrival at Waterloo, I headed a few stops up the Northern line then set about trying to navigate my way to Mary Portas’ Living and Giving Shop in Primrose Hill. There was a lovely festive feeling in the air - the streets were already decorated for Christmas; being a country bumpkin, I felt altogether rather Dickensian:

If you’ve never visited one of Save the Children’s Giving and Living shops, you must, just as soon as you get the chance - they are lush, inside and out, brimming with vintage goodness:

Shortly after all the bloggers had arrived, we were each handed a brown bag filled with goodies - namely three balls of Debbie Bliss Rialto DK in delightfully festive colours:

And then Debbie Bliss herself (complete with arm sling due a to a climbing-on-a-patio-chair injury) stepped forward and explained our task for the evening:

The task was to select and make one of these adorable miniature Christmas jumpers, fit for purpose as an egg or wine bottle cosy:

So we all got to work and, I have to say, I have never felt such a slow knitter! Some of these women were on fire!

But somehow we also managed to make time for an awful lot of nattering and scoffing of mince pies:

Sadly, I didn’t finish my cosy within the allotted two hours, largely down to the nattering and scoffing, I’m pretty sure, but it’s already looking ever so cute, nonetheless:

The highlight of my evening, naturally, was getting to meet such lovely ladies, and none more so than Debbie Bliss herself - she was so down to Earth and lovely:

She even complimented me on my Bo Peep scarf and enquired after the pattern, which pretty much made my month :-) And check out her gorgeous shoes!

After a truly lovely evening, we packed up and headed home, filled with ideas and having met some really inspirational bloggers with which to stay in touch.

But as lovely as the evening was, it would be extremely remiss of me not to tell you about the real reason we were there; the reason behind Save the Children’s Christmas Jumper Day campaign.

On Friday 14th December, more than 250,000 people (and counting!) will be wearing a festive woolly to schools, offices and workplaces all across the UK, with everyone taking part donating £1 to Save the Children.

Money raised from Christmas Jumper Day will help bring life-saving care to some of the world’s most vulnerable children. In the world’s poorest countries almost seven million children die every year from easily preventable causes like diarrhoea and malnutrition. Simple solutions, like vaccines and mosquito nets, save lives - so these knitted jumper jollies could make a real and important difference.

If you have a moment, please do visit the campaign website, Facebook page or Twitter feed to find out more. If you’d like to get involved by donning a Christmas jumper on Friday 14th December or holding an event of your own, there’s a wealth of information and resources available online to help you get started.

And if you’d like to have a go at knitting your own Christmas creation, you can find the patterns online, for free, courtesy of Save the Children and Debbie Bliss:

And don’t forget, you can have a bash, for £3, at guessing how long it’ll take me to knit my own Christmas jumper in my online sweepstake - 50p of your stake will go into the pot for the lucky winner to cash in, and the rest will go to Save the Children, to support their incredible work.

A huge thank you to Save the Children and the fabulous women I had the pleasure of meeting last night - it was a truly inspirational evening and so much fun. You can check out the blogs of the other participants on the links below - I can’t wait to read all of their write-ups…

Making The World Better With A Sweater

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 07:23:05 -0500

For more than a week now, I’ve been waxing lyrical about my endeavour to knit myself a Christmas jumper for Save The Children’s Christmas Jumper Day on Friday 14th December. You may also have seen some of the media coverage this week of some rather well-known slebs sporting their own festive knitwear in support of this fundraising campaign.

So you can image just how thrilled I was when I was invited by Save The Children, as one of a privileged few craft bloggers, to an event at Mary Portas’ Living and Giving Shop in Primrose Hill this evening, to help publicise the Christmas Jumper Day campaign!

During the evening, we’ll be tasked with knitting a mystery project (to be revealed tonight) and the session will be led by none other than Queen of the Kniterrati Debbie Bliss herself, along with her special guest Trisha Malcolm, Editor-in-Chief of Vogue Knitting.

I will, of course, be taking plenty of pictures and will write a blog post just as soon as I can tomorrow (I won’t be home from London tonight until gone 1am) but, in the meantime, I’ve compiled a list on Twitter of all the folks attending tonight, so you can take a peek this evening to see what we’re up to. Everyone will also be using the #XmasJumperDay and #XJDknitter hashtags.

Apparently I need some 3.25 needles for whatever it is we’re making tonight, so I’m off to the craft shop now before my train to London!

Pom Pom Pleasure

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 16:02:31 -0500

Today was a pretty bad day. I think it would be fair to describe my overall mood as glum. As regular readers of my blog will know, Matt and I have been living with his ever-patient folks for nearly 18 months now, fastidiously saving our pennies to buy a house and get wed. It’s been a long slog but finally, over the last month, we’ve been in a position to look seriously for somewhere of our very own to buy. Last week we found somewhere pretty special - with a big garden for Holly Dog to play in and plenty of room for Matt to tinker with campervans and boats and other toys, while I pottered about, doing all the things I like to do. So, excitedly, on Saturday we put in an offer and waited, anxiously, for four days.

This morning our offer was rejected. Not only that but some other bugger had put in a higher offer, and it had been accepted. Game over. Back to the drawing board.

On my drive home from the office today, I didn’t think much could cheer me up. But I was met, on my return home, not only with a lovely plate of smoked haddock and mashed potatoes (kindly cooked by my mother-in-law) but also a pile of parcels. Is there anything more exciting than receiving a parcel?

Depressingly, the first package was a reminder of the offer, waiting to be accepted, from our mortgage company. But the second parcel was rather more lovely.

Wrapped in navy blue tissue paper and tied with silver string, the parcel came with a little brown card tag that read ‘Thanks Becky! Pom Pom x’.

Pom Pom is a British, quarterly magazine now in its third edition that I discovered just the other day, after chatting to Lisa Mutch, a knitwear designer, on Twitter (@nbknitting) - she was excited to see her new hat pattern in print; admiring its prettiness, I asked her where I could find it, and she recommended Pom Pom. (By the way, in real life Lisa is based in Canada, but you can find her on Ravelry and she also has a beautiful Etsy shop, where she sells hand-dyed yarn, as well as her patterns.)

After subscribing to Mollie Makes just over a year ago, I never thought I’d have my head turned by another knitting/craft magazine, but this one is pretty spectacular. Not only does it contain tonnes of truly gorgeous patterns, but some really lovely features and recipes too (Spiced Cranberry Hot Toddy, and Cardamom and Black Pepper Oat Shortbreads in the Winter issue). The card stock and design are also stunning, and I’m a sucker for great presentation, me.

I’ve got a five-hour round trip to London planned tomorrow so I’m saving the rest of the magazine to savour on my train journey.

The Christmas Jumper Challenge - preparation

Thu, 15 Nov 2012 17:04:07 -0500

A few days ago I told you about the challenge I had set myself to knit a Christmas jumper in time for Save The Children’s Christmas Jumper Day on Friday 14th December. Having selected my pattern (freely available on the Save The Children website), I ordered myself some Wendy Mode Chunky and Sirdar Click Chunky from the Deramores website and -excitamente!- it arrived in the post yesterday! I went for ‘Sailor’, a lovely purpley blue, as my main colour and ‘Loganberry’ as my contrast colour:

In readiness for beginning the jumper this weekend, I did something this evening, which I must confess I have never done before: I made a tension square. This makes me a badly behaved knitter but, frankly, I could never be arsed. Knitting a jumper (for an adult), however, is a different kettle of fish and you really do need to ensure you get the sizing right - especially when I am that adult and I have to wear said jumper down the pub, in front of all my friends.

So I cast on 14 stitches and worked 20 rows of garter stitch, as per the pattern’s instructions - fortunately, it did measure the required 10cm:

My challenge now is to knit the jumper as quickly as I can so that it’s ready in time for Christmas Jumper Day and the Christmas jumper pub crawl I’ve organised. To motivate me and to raise some extra pennies for charity, I’ve set up a sweepstake on the Guess2Give website where you can take a punt at how long it’ll take me to complete my woolly creation. Each bet costs £3, of which 50p goes into a pot to be cashed in by the winning guess - the rest will go to Save The Children. Click here to take part - go on, you know you want to!

I’ve been conversing with Save The Children on Twitter this week and it seems there are a few of us who’re tweeting while preparing to knit a handmade Christmas jumper - we’ve earned ourselves a hashtag so you can follow our antics by searching #XJDknitter.

The Christmas Jumper Challenge

Sun, 11 Nov 2012 08:56:43 -0500

It’s started. John Lewis, Coca-Cola, M&S, Debenhams, Asda, Aldi, Matalan - they’ve all come out in force with their festive telly offerings. Saturday night’s X-Factor ad break was a barrage of snow-covered, retail merriment. I love it!

Save The Children have also embraced the bandwagon with their Christmas Jumper Day, which takes place this year on Friday 14th December. They’re encouraging folk to don a suitably gleeful, woolly wonder for the day and organise a fundraiser at work or school, or simply make a donation. You can go Scandinavian cool a la Sarah Lund or all-out, Wham-esque kitsch. Find out more and register here.

For those mad enough to take on the challenge with only five weeks to go (totally nuts), Save The Children have also teamed up with Debbie Bliss and T Bramsden to produce three free knitting patterns, including this besnowflaked beauty, which I’m going to attempt myself. Just sign-up on the Save The Children website to access the other two patterns, which include a very cute kids reindeer sweater.

I’ve organised a Christmas jumper pub crawl with some of my friends on Saturday 15th December so I have a strict deadline to work to! The rules of the pub crawl are that everyone must wear a Christmas jumper of their own creation. Inspirational photos to follow in a few weeks’ time, and hopefully we’ll raise a few quid for Save The Children.

Knitting Hero

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 10:05:52 -0400

Today was a proud day for our lunchtime knitting circle at work: our leader Carol was nominated runner-up in Knit Today magazine’s 2012 Knitting Hero awards.

The RNLI HQ knitting group has been going strong for nearly five years now, meeting every Wednesday lunchtime in the cafeteria, with Carol steadfastly at its helm, and we thought it only fitting to nominate her for Knit Today’s prestigious award.

Mairead, our Online Editor, put together an excellent tribute and we hoped for the best. Here’s Mairead, proudly leafing through the latest edition, hot off the newsagent’s shelf:

(I don’t believe she knitted that particular pullover herself.)

“We nominate Carol Waterkeyn, Unofficial Leader of the RNLI Knitting Group, Poole, Dorset:

“Most urban needle wielders will know the joy of a knitting group. Your fellow knitters will see you through the difficult stitches. They’ll always have a quarter ball of leftover yarn in just the right shade of pink for your Peppa Pig doll’s rosy cheek. Best of all, they’ll agree that knitting is just about the coolest thing you can do on a Wednesday afternoon.

“At the Headquarters of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, in Poole, Dorset, our knitting group is very important to us. And our nominated Knitting Hero, Carol Waterkeyn, keeps the group afloat.

“For nearly 5 years, our group has come together every Wednesday lunchtime to knit, nosh and natter. Carol sends a reminder email each Tuesday - a simple task, yes, but this is the kind of commitment without which groups tend to fall apart. As well as the weekly maintenance of our purling posse, Carol also researches and organises the various team projects we get involved in - to raise funds for the RNLI and for other charities.

Charity projects

“We have:

• raised hundreds for the RNLI through our annual Christmas sale of knitted items, including scarves, hats and tree decorations (pictured left)

• taken part twice in Age UK’s campaign, in association with Innocent and Sainsbury’s, to knit hats for smoothie bottles, with each one sold raising 50p for the charity (pictured above – Carol is front and centre in the red shirt)

• knitted cats to raise funds for the Cats’ Protection League

• made thick, warm hats, scarves and balaclavas for the Mission to Seafarers

• made more delicate but still essential hats for premature babies in intensive care

• contributed to Oxfam’s knitted squares project for a giant baby blanket in 2008.

“Last year, an RNLI supporter passed away and her son got in touch to ask if our charity could do anything with her large stash of wool. Carol organised for the wool to be picked up in Somerset and brought to Poole, at no extra cost to the RNLI, and has stored various boxes (in the office, in her home and in the homes of anyone willing) for the group’s use.

“Carol felt it was important to treat this as a bequest, even though it was an informal gift. We don’t use the donated yarn for our own projects. We only use this generous supporter’s donation for projects that raise money for charity.

Why Carol’s a hero

“Carol Waterkeyn coordinates all this on top of her full-time day job as a staff writer for the RNLI. Things haven’t been easy for her over the past couple of years, with a serious health scare for her husband, and a wrist injury for herself. But she has always carried on smiling and stitching, and kept our group together – in the face of much mockery in a male-dominated canteen!

“She loves to read knitting magazines, including Knit Today, and lusts after all the beautiful yarns and accessories featured therein. We know she’ll be touched even to be nominated, and would be thrilled to be named a winner. Well, first she’ll be very embarrassed, but she’ll get over it!

“We think she deserves it for all the charity projects, for keeping our group together, for incredible logistics skills and for being a such an enthusiastic ambassador for knitting.

“Nominated by Mairéad, Carol D, Becky, Penny, Linda, Marilyn, Kate, Stephanie, Karen and all members, past and future, of the RNLI Knitting Group.”

Unfortunately, Carol’s off swanning about on her holidays at the moment so I haven’t a photo of her in person but here she is, beaming from the pages of Knit Today:

Thanks, Carol, you’re the best :-) xxx

OMG! There’s a new video on the Tiny Owl Knits Vimeo...

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 09:21:00 -0400

OMG! There’s a new video on the Tiny Owl Knits Vimeo channel all about the new e-book Stephanie has produced for KnitPicks - you will LOVE IT. (Well, I did.)

Knitting Socks

Sun, 21 Oct 2012 11:03:50 -0400

After teaching myself to knit in the round with double-pointed needles last year, I was determined to master The Art of The Sock.

I did some bargain-hunting in the Craftsy course Christmas sale back in December and spotted their sock-making tutorial reduced (from $59.99 to $9.99) so I snapped it up. But, after what seemed like several hours into the video tutorial course, we still hadn’t started any actual knitting - I got a bit bored and started trawling Ravlery for beginner’s knitting patterns.

With too much speed and not enough haste, I ploughed into this waffle stitch pattern without reading the instructions all the way to the end and, by the time I reached the heel-shaping stage, I was completely confused. The design emerging on the cuff was really pretty but I was totally stumped and decided to cut my losses - and yarn.

Then I found this YouTube tutorial… et voila! (This video is also super useful.) Basically, knitting your first sock is not something you can just do by reading from a pattern alone - terminology is used that you simply won’t have come across before. Most patterns (all that I’ve come across) will assume a certain level of knowledge. I highly recommend that you watch the videos above or get someone patient to show you in person - it really is quite a leap from basic knitting in the round.

Having abandoned the waffle stitch pattern, I decided to try something else and came across the Pom Pom Peds pattern while browsing one of my favourite blogs, the Purl Bee. For newcomers to sock knitting, I cannot recommend this pattern highly enough - it’s a quick knit and super, super simple; what’s more, the instructions are really easy to follow and the finished socks are so cute. I decided to use the beautiful Amy Butler yarn a friend bought me as a thank you gift back in May - it was her insistence that it be used to make something for me.

This is my first ever successfully-completed sock (sans pom-pom but I’ll add that later):

I’ve not yet made the second sock (I need to buy another ball of yarn) but I did return, however, to the waffle stitch pattern, determined not to be beaten. I have to say, having now got the hang of what sock knitting is all about, this pattern was also very simple to follow. I used two balls of scrumptiously soft and squishy Merino DK in a charcoal grey. I only started the second sock on Tuesday and had it finished by Friday evening.

I was so pleased with the finished socks and actually rather jealous of my lovely friend Clem, who I gave them to yesterday as her birthday present - here she is trying them on:

(Dim lighting, I’m afraid - we needed to set the atmosphere for our evening of excessive gin-drinking.)

Happy birthday, Clemency - I hope your new socks bring you toasty underfoot comfort wherever you go :-) xxx

Next stop for me (after I finish my other Pom-Pom Ped) is to make my way through my Joy of Sox pattern book and embark on more sock-making adventures!

Why A Kindle Is Just Like A Tardis...

Sun, 21 Oct 2012 09:30:14 -0400

As a dyed-in-the-wool (‘scuse the pun) Doctor Who fan, I was left pretty gutted by Amy’s ‘Pond Farewell’ last week (again, sorry). To make up for it, I’ve been working on what I can honestly describe as my favourite project this year.

You may recall that my lovely friend Sara made me a knitted Kindle cosy for my birthday back in August? Well, it was her equally lovely husband Mark’s birthday recently and he too is a big Who fan - the perfect excuse to knit this incredible TARDIS KINDLE COSY!

The pattern is a free download that I stumbled across (God knows what I was browsing for!) on Ravelry. I mean, honestly, who needs an excuse but nevertheless…

The pattern is worked in the round - I’m usually a DPN girl but I decided to use a circular needle for a spot of practice. The pattern required casting on 60 stitches, meaning I didn’t need to use the Magic Loop method, which is, frankly, a relief because I still can’t get to grips with it, no matter how many times I try!

After casting on, I worked four rounds of stocking stitch then began the pattern. A word of caution if you’re following the pattern I’ve linked to: instructions are only given for the patterned side of the cosy; the back is just plain stocking stitch, but the pattern doesn’t actually say this, so don’t get caught out - what you need to do, therefore, is add another 30 knit stitches at the end of the instructions for each round.

The main pattern replicates the panels on the doors of the Tardis and is worked by creating garter stitch rectangles within a stocking stitch frame - nice and straight-forward actually.

After the panels are complete, you’ll join some white yarn to your work to knit the window panels. I must confess that it’s the first time I’ve used Fair Isle while knitting in the round - I thought I might get in a tangle but it was surprisingly simple.

The window panels are followed by five rounds of stocking stitch, to create a flat area on which to embroider the lettering later. I then cast off in the usual way.

After sewing the bottom seams up with mattress stitch (another instruction missing from the pattern), I used a tapestry needle to embroider ‘Police box’ across the top of the Tardis:

After weaving in all the loose ends, the Tardis was complete - I just love it!

The perfect fit for a sleepy Kindle…

Last night, a gang of us bundled round to our friends Tim and Clem’s for take-away curry and lots of gin, so I finally got to give the Tardis to Mark. Appropriately, in genuine geek chic fashion, he was wearing his Spiderman onesie. He was very happy about the Tardis…

Photo

Sat, 13 Oct 2012 10:17:30 -0400