Magic Balls!

They have arrived!



My beautiful Magic Balls by the yarn genius that is Sophie's Toes are the current pride of my stash and they were worth the hard fought battle to get them as I am sure you discerning yarn addicts will agree...







Magic Balls have been revived by Emily Parson in her Etsy shop and utilise an age old technique of tying together leftover lengths of yarn and winding it into a ball for it to be knit into a technicolour dream item. Emily uses lengths of her hand-dyed sock yarn and supplies a scarf pattern with each ball, but she has also knitted the most amazing Elizabeth Zimmerman Baby Surprise jacket from a ball which is what sold the yarn to me.

Unfortunately all this winding takes its toll and the Magic Balls will not be available again until the autumn but I am going to have a go at home...Google 'Magic Balls Yarn Knitting' and you will find lots of articles on the subject to help you create your very own individual Magic Ball!

Street Roses

These beauties grow happily down my street and I am always amazed by their colours...






...I know they will never win any prizes, but that coral colour and the yellow and pink together!

Community

One of the loveliest things about knitting is all the people you meet along the way. You do actually become part of a community and it is not long before you realise that you are never alone.

Thanks to the internet we knitters can chat to others anywhere in the world and swap tips, tricks, compare yarns, get serious stash envy and learn about our chosen craft. Sites such as Ravelry are bringing thousands of knitters together every day. This week I met up with Gabrielle of O.R.K. Because to do a dodgy street yarn deal and sat for 15 minutes and talked Wonder Wool and IKnit amongst other knitty topics. I have also met other people through Ravelry and it is always so easy to chat because we have a common bond...knitting!

So remember, if you are knitting you are never alone. There will always be another knitter out there happy to talk yarn, so make the most of it.

Small communities can achieve great things and I have added a 'Stars of Charity Knitting' links section to the right. You will find a number of charities who accept knitted items kindly donated by knitters for very worthwhile causes. I have listed those I am personally involved with. There are many more out there that you may find a more common bond with, but I am sure you will have a spare half ball or odds and ends of yarn lurking in a bag that can be easily whipped up into a beautiful knitted item that will be gratefully received. Knitting the hat for for the Sailor's Society was how I learned to do cables (see picture below), and the Burundi Bears are great fun for letting your imagination run wild with colour combinations!

Movement

I finally made it to the Tate Modern to see the Duchamp, Manray, Picabia exhibition and didn't leave disappointed as I finally got to see one of my favourite paintings in the flesh (no pun intended)


This is the amazing Nude Descending a Staircase by Marcel Duchamp and it got me thinking about movement in patterns and how stitches can me used to give the effect of movement. Repeat stitch patterns are described as 'travelling' and give a line through a piece of knitted fabric and cable work in particular can be used to incredible effect. I still find the Bloody Stupid Johnson hat a mean feat of cable work and it literally runs around the wearers head! Another good example would be Gust by Anne Hanson which has a lovely rhythm running through it and is similar to my current 'bus knitting' wip, the Hypoteneuse Scarf by the same designer.


I hope you can see where I am coming from? Now I am on this train of thought it will keep popping up and I am sure to find more examples. The Hypoteneuse is nearly finished, just another 3 repeats to do and it apparently requires a 'stern blocking'...watch this space!

And So To Knitting

Allow me to introduce my current favourite work in progress (WIP)...the Kerry Blue Square Shawl from Traditional Knitted Lace Shawls by Martha Waterman.

I am working in Rowan 4 Ply Soft and it is a lovely yarn to knit with. I have a guilty secret...I am a serial sale stalker. You will find me lurking near bargain bins, rummaging through end of lines and quietly stashing odd balls of discontinued treasure. This is how the striped Kerry Blue has happened.

I have collected a number of half price balls of the 4 ply and they look so fab together. I think I am going to have to go and buy one ball of full price cream but I can live with that. Stashing yarn in this way is such a great way to get a creative project together as you will find yourself trying colour combinations that you may otherwise have never contemplated. I love the murky green with the pink and in turn the green with the brown, yet I am not a big pink fan but it really lifts the other colours. I can't wait to finish the shawl.

The pattern looks really complicated for lace knitters in their beginning days like me but all it requires is a little concentration. It is really quite simple and looks so effective. This will also be my first lace blocking and from what I have heard it is the most exciting part of a lace project...will keep you posted...

Blank Page

Why is it when faced with a blank page this is when the mind too goes blank?

There is a writer who always starts the next page before retiring for the day, so when he returns the following morning he does not have to face the blank page syndrome. My mind is so blank right now I cannot even remember who the writer is, in fact maybe I even made it up or saw it on a movie.

I have been thinking about starting a blog for a while now. So many things go through my mind whilst knitting and I either scribble them down on scraps of paper or they vanish into the ether before I even have time to do that.

My mind is so random and sometimes so blank that may be somedays there will not be a lot to say and others may be filled with the most remarkable happenings. Who knows. All I do hope is that my blog is more interesting than the diary I kept at the age of 8!

I look forward to meeting whoever may stumble across my lame ramblings please do say Hi...it will reassure me that I am not the only one who understands what on earth I am on about!