The English Armchair Abroad

MY ETSY SHOP IS NOW OPEN!!!

Please take a look and like I said before, any comments are welcome.  (But be kind, it takes ages to load up just one entry!)

L'Atelier du Grand Gennetay, France

Ugly ducklings and beautiful swallows

De-Daaa...

The ugly duckling has turned into

my very first lace shawl and this one is Swallowtail by Evelyn Clark which I found on Ravelry. 

It was a quick knit but hard going as I've never had to count stitches quite so accurately before!  If you look closely enough (but I forgot, the photo is taken too far away so you can't!) you will spot a couple of errors but even I have trouble finding them! 

The yarn is a mix of cashmere/silk/alpaca which I recently bought and dyed - green I thought but actually it's the greener side of turquoise!  No matter, needless to say it's the love of my knitting life right now!

The top two photos illustrate the need for blocking lace work.  I'm fortunate to have a big upholstery table which is padded so I can pin the shawl into this and leave it overnight to dry without any worries.  Some knitters apparently don't have an upholstery workshop (strange that) and resort to pinning onto the carpet, first making sure the dog, the cat and above all, the kids are out of the way.

 

Nothing ventured, nothing gained

It is no surprise that during an economic downturn upholstery takes a hit.  I do have some work coming in and for this I am very grateful, but I do need to find other ways of filling the coffers.

Since I started knitting I found that I was buying more and more wool off the internet because regular wool shops don't tend to stock the more interesting yarns.  I recently bought six kilos of wool from a supplier in the UK (taking advantage of the pound/euro exchange) and some wool dyes and after a few tentative, but successful, attempts at dyeing will be opening my Etsy Store this week.  The widget will be up ont his blog and I do hope you will all visit it and give me feedback.  If you want to buy something that would be a bonus! 

Why Etsy?  Basically because it is for craft minded people who are looking for quality. I prefer the look of the Etsy stores and also it is cheaper than, for example, an Ebay shop.  The downside is that as it is US based it only deals in US Dollars.  However, I will be offering my customers the possibility of paying in Euros.

To begin with I will be listing only hand dyed wool but later on I hope to be listing hand spun (and dyed) wool as well.  At the moment I have sock wool and also some WONDERFUL silk/cashmere/alpaca lace weight wool (a photo of my first ever shawl will hopefully be up before the end of the week).   Just the feel of this yarn makes me want to keep it all but my wonderful husband has pointed out that he only agreed to this venture on a business basis and not as a good excuse to knit and knit and knit!  I will also list other non-wool related items that I make in my workshop.

One of the best outcomes of this venture is that I have finally learnt how to crop pictures to a specified size without the help of my sons.  Yes, ok, it took a while to do that banner but I'd already seen that film...and the one that followed it...;)

Titch

Titch was our Bearded Collie and tragically he was killed last Saturday.  He ran in front of the car as I was driving away and that was that.

With boundless energy Titch accompanied me on almost every single one of my runs when I was marathon training.  The furthest he ran was 20 miles - this is not recommended for dogs so let me explain.  This was my last long run before the marathon and I decided to do two circuits of 10 miles so that I could leave Titch at the house after the first circuit.  This I did, carefully shutting him in the house with my husband.  After 15 minutes Max went out into the garden and obviously Titch followed him.  Except he didn't.  He followed my tracks and caught up with me two miles down the road.  Aghast, I told him that if that was his choice, fine, he could live with it and do the whole 20 miles.  Totally unimpressed he did just that and looked miffed when we finally got home as if to say:  Is that IT?  What about the last six miles?

Titch loved sailing with us and would sit on the deck, calmly rearranging himself when we went about and only coming into the cockpit if it got really rough. 

His red nose, clearly visible in the picture, was caused by him using his nose as a brake.  He was always waiting for us to throw tennis balls and sticks and would gallop after them full pelt.  About ten feet in front of them he would put his nose down, probably so that he could get a better view through the hair in front of his eyes, and literally skid to a stop.  Fine on the grass but not so fine on the gravel! 

He was delighted when we bought Tosca assuming (as we did) that she would be overwhelmed by his advances and that fatherhood beckonned but sadly Tosca had other ideas and whenever she came on heat sat down and turned her back on him.  During this time Titch really did look like an eager teenager trying to date his first girl.  He would follow her around with his tongue hanging out and great big soppy eyes. 

We'll miss Titch enormously and he will be impossible to replace.  However, a kind lady put me in touch with a breeder who has an 8 year old Beardie that she can no longer look after.  She has invited us to meet him this week and if we all like each other we will bring him back with us to introduce to our dogs.  He won't be the same but with time he might help fill the gap.

Spinning with excitement

I recently decided to try and make a whacky jacket and came up with this Forest Jacket by Janice Rosema  (if you want the pattern it's here)

Unfortunately just one ball of Ozark Handspun is nearly 30 euros and this vest requires six balls plus one other of a different yarn.  Well, my spinning wheel cost a bit less than that so I've decided that now is the time to make it REALLY earn its keep!

However, although I've become quite good at spinning just plain ordinary yarn (although sock yarn is still a yarn too far) how on earth do I start to produce something like this:

So yesterday I was thrilled when my two spinning books arrived from Amazon.  The first is Spinning Designer Yarns by Diane Varney and has a wonderful section on various different techniques that will produce different effects in yarn.  The second one, Intertwined by Lexi Boeger, again teaches the different techniques but also teaches you how to go beyond the normal - adding all sorts of different textures to your yarn.  Both books are now in my bookstore or you can click on the links below - go on, I dare you!

So now you all know my project for the year.  To spin and make this jacket.  Not sure yet about the colours but I know that it will become clear as I get going.  (And this is my second project)