Lootfest 2009

I went to Woolfest 2009 on Saturday, on the Scottish Fibres bus.

Everyone arrived punctually and we kept good time, superbly and unobtrusively managed by Spinning Fishwife and her clipboard.

I bought blue yarn.

Blue Faced Leicester Sock in Mamba by Fyberspates

I used to think that I wasn't going to make Shawl That Jazz. Now I'm not so sure. This would suit it.

Hand-Dyed Sock in Summer Clouds by Ripples

I think there's enough white in this that it will be like Delft china when it's knitted up. It's an intense blue.

I got it from Helen at Ripples. She lives in a very beautiful part of the world where my mother used to go every summer and we spoke about that. Stall holders must have to get used to customers coming up and launching enthusiastically into an unpredictable range of topics. Helen's blog has a lovely photograph of her stand filled up with yarn, and then another after it was stripped bare and turned back into an animal space. Do go and have a look.

2-ply Expressions from The House of Hemp

I'm going to a wedding in October and have been thinking about making a top from some sort in magical yarn. I'm very tempted by Deep Breath, but I also like the House of Hemp pattern that came with this yarn. The important thing is that I should actually knit it, instead of just making plans for all the things that I could knit with it.

I bought some that isn't blue.

Toddy yarn in Woolfest '09 by The Yarn Yard

When I'm not wearing blue and turquoise and green, I wear neutrals. A Baktus maybe; I keep admiring other people's. Certainly something scarfy. The colours are so much nicer in reality.

I got the two things which were on the very short list of Things I Have To Get, a pair of 5.5mm rosewood needles from Scottish Fibres
and a tapestry-needle holder from Twist Fibre Craft Studio in Newburgh. They're about 46 miles north from where I live, and I have my Interweave Knits and Vogue Knitting subscriptions with them, so it was a bit strange to travel 130 miles in the opposite direction to buy it from them. It's from Ireland and made of yew.

I should have taken a photograph of the smell. I was reminded of Loudon Wainwright's line from Dead Skunk - You don't have to look, You don't have to see, You can feel it in your olfactory, but in a good way. It was made by delightful creatures like this.


She's not a sheep; she's an angora goat. (I realize you probably know this, but I didn't.)

There was a couple of newly sheared alpacas but they looked very cross so I didn't take their picture. Ambermoggie did.

I got buttons. Someone on the bus said to me afterwards, 'I never buy buttons unless I know what I'm going to use them for,' and I said, 'Yes, I used to have that rule too, until today. '


Sorry the photo's so dull. We're having very overcast weather and lots of mist just now and everything looks as if it's been put in a hot wash with a black tee shirt. They're from Injabulo. I've pored over their website in the past, unable to make a decision, so I was really pleased to come across their stand. When one of my nieces was small and was faced with a difficult decision, perhaps between two kinds of ice-cream, she said, 'That's a hard choose, Granny.' This was indeed a hard choose.

I don't mind if I don't use them actually. The smiley cats might go up on the kitchen wall.

I started winding some blue yarn on the bus.

Lost label yarn from Fyberspates, possibly Self Striping Sock

I cast on for a Baktus with it, but when it got home it became a swatch because I couldn't get the needle size right. It has now become something else, which you shall be seeing shortly.

Also on the way home, the spinner sitting in front of me turned a bit of something black and scruffy into beautiful fine yarn, before my astonished eyes. It presumably wasn't really scruffy, but if I'd found it, I probably would have thrown it away.

When I was at the Twist stall, my card was 'declined' and I had to use a different one. I thought this was a bit strange, because I knew there was about £300 in the first account and a negative amount in the second one but I rolled with it. On Monday I sent Fyberspates a frantic email because I had used the card with her and I thought she might blacklist me, and I rang the bank (complicated by the fact that my landline is out of order, sigh) who said they had suspended my account because of 'unusual activity' and went through said unusual activity with me, which was my usual few pounds here and there with Amazon and iTunes, nothing odd at all. I thought they were going to say I'd booked a hotel room in Dubai, which happened to a friend of mine. Anyway, it's all sorted now.

Sunday, there was more knitting excitement. Knitting Linguist was passing through Edinburgh before going north and we met for coffee. It was as if someone had pressed a buzzer, and we were off, non-stop talking for 90 minutes until her husband came and took her away - well, no he didn't but you know what I mean. Hi, Rick.

It's very odd, this business of meeting someone whom you already know very well, or think you do. I once met my French pen-pal and we hardly had anything to say to each other, not least because we could write each other's language better than we could speak it. At Woolfest I met three people whom I already knew online, but I thought there were probably others there, whose darkest secrets I have read, but whom I walked past unknowingly. This time anyway, it went very well and it was like talking to someone that I'd known for years.

She gave me these. The amazing thing is that the box isn't empty yet.

What with talking pretty incessantly to my companion Lindsay (who bought even more purple yarn than I bought blue) on the bus most of the way there and most of the way back, and to other passengers, and stall-holders, and then to Jocelyn on Sunday, I reckon I talked more over those two days that I usually do in a week. I had speech difficulties as a child, and it has often been remarked that I've been making up for it ever since, so it was good to know that I still can.

And Phone Guy came today and fixed the phone, so now I can catch up on my calls. More talking.

P.S. I don't know why the font size in this post keeps changing and I have given up trying to put it right. Sorry.

Dis 'n' Dat

Knitting
Thanks for the reassurances about Chrissy and the mysterious fluctuating All Seasons Cotton. It's good to know I wasn't imagining it.

I've barely done any knitting since my last post. I do a few more millimetres on the off-blog project from time to time, but that's about it. I'm reluctant to start anything because I'm going to Woolfest on Saturday and there's not much point in starting something today if I'm only going to cast it aside on Sunday in a frenzy of excitement with my loot. I'm catching the Scottish Fibres bus at an ungodly hour on Saturday along with a couple of dozen other people, and we shall be making our way through the early morning light down to Cockermouth in Cumbria, singing knitting songs and waulking the tweed. Well, perhaps not, but something like that.

Given my limited mobility, I'm not sure how much I'll be able to do, but I think it'll be worth it to soak up the atmosphere and see all the wool-stoned faces. Spinning Fishwife assures me that there are lots of seats in the Centre, which should facilitate rests interspersed with short lunges at the merchandise. I got very organised about 3 weeks ago and ordered some Ravelry badges. Can I find them now? Can I b*gg*ry. **

Although I don't usually eat much during the day, I've become convinced that I will be starving - being trapped on a mode of transport can do that to a body - and anyway I don't want to waste my short amount of standing power by standing in queues for food and coffee, so my list of proposed sandwiches, snacks and beverages is getting very long. Between that and my collapsible chair in case of emergency, I suspect that the bus driver may be reluctant to let me aboard with my collection of mysterious bags.

New Book
Lynne Barr, who wrote the fabulous Knitting New Scarves has got a new book coming out, called Reversible Knitting.


It's due out in the U.S. in October, and Amazon U.K. shows the same date. The bumf says:

Most of the stitch dictionaries on knitters’ shelves are remixes of familiar stitch patterns already published elsewhere. Not so for Lynne Barr’s groundbreaking book Reversible Knitting. Not only is every one of the 50 stitch patterns completely new and never before seen, but each is also reversible—for a total of 100 different looks!

Reversible stitch patterns can be used to create projects where either side can be worn facing outward, or where two sides of the piece are visible simultaneously (such as a scarf or a garment with collar or cuffs that that can be worn up or down). In addition to stitch patterns, the book features 20 such projects—from accessories like scarves, hats, and socks to sweaters and dresses—designed by the author and by 12 top knitwear designers including STC authors Véronik Avery, Norah Gaughan, and Teva Durham. Rounding out the book are in-depth instructions for the specialized techniques required for reversible work.

The cardi on the cover looks like a Norah Gaughan design, doesn't it? One of her may-be-worn-upside-down designs. I can't wait. In fact, I've pre-ordered it.

Movies
I watched a Norwegian/Swedish film called Kitchen Stories tonight. It's wonderful. After World War II, the Swedes carried out research on the most efficient use of kitchens, which is a laudable enough idea and I expect we've all benefited from it, but it was carried out by sending inspectors to sit in kitchens on very high chairs, like tennis umpires, and observe the occupants.


They were forbidden to interfere in the work of the kitchen, and indeed weren't permitted to join in at meals or even to have a cup of coffee. The film examines what might have happened when the inspectors found themselves observing in remote parts of Norway, where their presence wasn't welcome and reminds us that human beings like to communicate even in the least promising circumstances.

I think I would have got more out of it if I spoke Norwegian or Swedish as I'm sure there are a lot of in-jokes which escape the sub-titles, or even if I knew a little more of their history than I do, but I thought it was delightful and I want to watch it again some day.

** Found them! At 00.09 on Saturday morning.