Heather Knits

This morning was a bit of an unaccustomed early start for me. I was up a 6am (!) to book classes for Knit Nation in July. There is no end to my knitting dedication! Luckily despite me not exactly being my best at that time in the morning, I managed to book a place on my first choice of classes. I will be doing spinning for lace with Janel Laidman on Thursday, Wonders of Wool, and Wonders of Wool: UK with Clara Parkes on Friday, and spinning for socks with Judith Mackenzie McCuin on Saturday. And I booked a ticket for the ravelry talk on Friday night, and the marketplace preview on Thursday night, whew!

I was so excited about it all, and somewhat worried that I would sleep through my alarm clock that I didn’t really sleep well last night. I opted to go back to bed after the booking but was so keyed up that it took me an hour or so to actually get to sleep. Early night tonight I think! I hate to think what I shall be like by July since this was just the booking excitement.

I also have to work out a good way to transport Suzie on the train. I have been experimenting with a luggage trolley thing we have which we bought ages ago for a suitcase whose wheels had fallen off. The suitcase is now long gone but the trolley has been standing by the side of the washing machine for years and this could now be its moment. I think I would like some kind of bag or box though to pad the wheel itself before it goes on the trolley to protect it from knocks while navigating the transport from here to the class. I had considered putting her inside a suitcase, but she is very square and is too deep front to back for even our largest suitcase. Majacraft do now make a Suzie Pro bag, so I am investigating whether it is available in this country.

And I need to decide whether I want to stay over at the venue, or travel back and forth each day. The booking for accomodation doesn’t open til March, so I still have a while to decide.

Time for a cup of Christmas tea (Betty’s makes the best Christmas tea I have found so far), (and possibly some sneaky fudge), and a lie down in a darkened room.

Friday 11th and Saturday 12th September were the dates for this years IKnit show in London. This is the first time it has been spread across two days, and I went on both.

On Friday morning I went to the Twined Knitting class held by the Dutch Knitters, Carla and Hilly. They were fabulous and I had a great time. Here we all are working hard:

They also very kindly brought lots of samples of several different examples of twined knitting, here are just a few of them:

A really interesting technique and one I am looking forward to exploring more.

During the workshop we were working on a pattern for a little pouch, which cleverly incorporated the major techniques of twined knitting. I finished mine on the train on Saturday morning so was able to show them how it had come out.

My cast on was a bit tight, but I think I have got the idea now. This is just the right size for my iPod too, which is very convenient

On Saturday lunch time I went to a talk by the always excellent Joyce Meader on military knitting from the Crimea to the present day. She was hilarious and informative as always, and brought an incredible amount of stuff with her for us to look at. The only thing which I thought was a shame with this talk was that as the timing clashed with both the morning workshops and the afternoon ones so there weren’t that many people who came to hear it.

As seems to be inevitable with these events I didn’t escape without a few purchases. First, a lovely skein of Fyberspates Sheila’s sock in colour Jewels, 100% superwash merino, 100g, 365m.

Next some laceweight in the brightest green you have ever met. This is Tosh Lace from Madeline Tosh, colour Seaglass, 868m per skein (I bought 2), 100% superwash merino.

Then two balls of Crystal Palace Mini Mochi, 80% merino, 20% nylon, in colour 108 from Gill at the Woolly Workshop. This is very soft.

And the last yarn I bought was a ball of crazy zauberball by Schoppel Wolle in Tropical Fish (I do think the German frische Fische sounds better) from Bev at Knitting4Fun.

I did buy some fibre too from John Arbon. This bag contains, 400g of 100% white fine alpaca, 22 – 26 micron, 400g of 100% champagne fine alpaca, 22 – 26 micron, 400g of a blend of 70% champagne alpaca, and 30% white merino, 22 – 26 micron, and finally a little paper bag with 100g of undyed tussah silk top.

And lastly I bought a fun card from Tilly Flop. I’m not going to put a picture up because I am thinking of giving it to Mummy for her next birthday and she does read the blog from time to time.

There were a good range of stands, and nice wide aisles between them. From a customer perspective it was very nice that it wasn’t as busy as some of the bigger shows, since it meant you could easily get in and see all the lovely things to buy, without having to elbow a couple of dozen people out of the way first. There seemed to be better seating than last year so I could actually sit down to eat my lunch this time which was nice.

Although all the stuff is of course very nice, the best bit of the two days was the people. It was lovely to meet up with so many knitting people, both those I already knew and people who were new to me. I had a wonderful time and am looking forward to next year! I had better get knitting with some of the stuff!

Well, it has been a busy September round here! In a calm between the storms I am finally going to sort out my photos from the last few weeks. Due to the wonders of the scheduling function on wordpress you will be pleased to know I’m not going to drown you with everything that has happened all at once, but instead try to spread it out so you can be enjoying the delights every few days, while I am dashing round like a headless chicken again. I am going to catch up in chronological order, because otherwise my brain hurts.

On Saturday 22nd August I had a lovely time in Marlow, Bucks, helping Rosie and Jill teach a workshop on the patchwork knitting of Horst Schulz. We were joined by twelve delightful and enthusiastic knitters, who I have managed to photograph in the most unflattering and blurry way possible. I am getting a bit better at photographing knitting, but my photographs of people leave a lot to be desired. Here is the least awful picture.

This year as well as talking about basic mitred squares, and variations on them, including increasing and decreasing, I did some samples of different edgings. With these patchwork knitting workshops we are aiming to give people the skills to be able to design and create their own items and hopefully these edgings will be another something to add to the design toolkit. One of the parts of the day I enjoy the most every year is when everybody shows their patchwork knitting projects they have been working on (both finished and in progress). There are always such a lot of wonderful and creative projects to see, and so many different directions in which different people have taken the same basic building blocks. I’m afraid I was enjoying myself again so much that my photos are dreadful. Luckily though, one of my few reasonable photos is of Rosie’s beautiful short row cushion.

I found all of the projects very inspiring, and am looking forward to incorporating some of the ideas in my own knitting. I hope that the other participants had as much fun as I did, and I look forward to seeing everyone again next year!

You may have spotted a new link on the sidebar a few weeks ago. I am very excited that I am going to Terri’s Samhain / Hallowe’en Fibre Retreat from 30th Oct – 1st Nov 2009 in Devon. I am also thrilled that I will be teaching one of the workshops on Friday afternoon. My workshop is on making an Emerald Beaded Bracelet. I am planning to stock up on the knitting needles, a variety of colours of beads and thread, and the other bits and bobs needed so that for a small cost people can make themselves a little kit with the thread and beads they would like, and we can have a nice afternoon knitting with beads

Terri still has some spots available for the weekend, so it would be lovely to see you there! I think it should be a fun weekend, good outings, and what sounds like very yummy food, as well as a nice variety of workshops (I may be just a little biased here) and of course the company of other knitters.

This is the first rest day of the tour. I have also been having a bit of a rest from the spinning and have been doing a bit of knitting instead (along with fixing the gutter (carpet now dry, wasps gone, gutter cleaned and re-attached to wall, I think we are sorted), and trying to work out if the washing machine is broken enough to warrant calling an engineer).

So here is my knitted up spindle-spun yarn I made on Day One of the tour.

I have also been knitting away on strips of mitred squares which I am going to do different edgings on for the workshop on 22nd August. 3 done so far.

I’m not at the moment sure how many I am going to do. I shall try a few edging ideas and see what I think looks ok.

Rosie Sykes, Heather Murray and Jill Brownjohn will be holding a 1-day Workshop in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, teaching the patchwork knitting techniques of Horst Schulz, on Saturday 22 August 2009. This will be the sixth year of similar workshops.

Times: Saturday 22 August 09.30 – 4.30

Cost: £35.00

The Workshop will be small so participants gain maximum practical benefit. Regret not suitable for non-knitters, but only simple knitting skills required. Beginners to the techniques and previous students have different schedules, but combine for some time together. The more experienced you are, the faster you will progress. There will be some ideas for combining these techniques with machine knitting.

Details from jill@craftyevents.com or heather@heatherknits.com

or telephone Jill to reserve a place – 01628 471397

There has been lots of dyeing going on round here lately, although not all of it by me. At the March meeting of the Ash knitting group we had a dyeing workshop. Janine led the demonstration of dyeing with Kool Aid, Lisa on dyeing with food colouring (she uses icing dyes) and I did acid dyes.

We set up three big tables in the hall, one for each type of dyeing and Janine made up lots of mini skeins of Wensleydale wool. People started off at the table of their choice, then after finishing one skein, moved around to one of the other tables to try the other sorts of dyeing. I think everyone got a chance to try out each of the types of dyeing if they wanted to, and several people managed multiple skeins.

Here is everyone hard at work. We are very fortunate with the Victoria Halls in Ash since it is a nice big room with plenty of space to get between the tables, and the lighting isn’t bad.

And here is my table of acid dyers. I mixed up all the solutions before the workshop to simplify things a bit. Plastic milk bottles make great containers for dye solutions and you can write on them with marker pen so you don’t forget what is inside

I loved seeing everyone’s different colour choices and methods of application. What a lot of fantastically creative people we are lucky to have come to the group. Here are some of the skeins drying.

I am looking forward to seeing what everyone makes with their yarns, and hopefully we have given people a little taster of different types of dyeing.

On Saturday the 4th of October I had the pleasure of helping Jill Brownjohn and Rosie Sykes run a workshop on the Patchwork Knitting of Horst Schulz.

We had 11 participants, a mixture of beginners and those who had been to the workshop Rosie led last year, and the ones Horst taught a few years ago. It was a really nice number, and having three of us doing the teaching meant that we could be running several different things at the same time, giving people a choice of what they would like to try.

Here are some of the early arrivals before we got started (as with all the other pictures, click to see a bigger version).

I’m afraid a lot of my photos are a bit on the blurry side, the weather was rather dark and grey outside – a great day for being inside and doing lots of knitting. So here is Rosie talking at the start of the day.

We covered a variety of the modular shapes used by Horst Schulz, and also various of his joining techniques. Jill also talked about combining machine knitting with modular knitting, and I talked about shaping within modules, using the techniques I used in my Patchwork Sweater (I really must come up with a better name for it).

Here is Jill, showing her bag made by machine knitting strips and then joining them using one of Horst’s techniques.

And here Jill is again, talking about a waistcoat she is part way through working.

As well as showing the modular knitting we had been working on, we were fortunate enough to be able to show to everyone some pieces made by the other workshop participants – some of whom are very prolific! This is from Patricia Werner’s Dazzling Knits.

It was wonderful to see the different directions everyone had taken using the same basic ideas. One of the things I love about going to knitting groups and workshops is to see the creativity of all the participants, and to see the fantastic range of things produced when everyone is starting from the same basic starting point. Everyone has different tastes and interests and sees things slightly differently, and it is such a delight to see so many different approaches and what everyone brings to the process.

Here everyone is winding down at the end of the day and just finishing things off in time to pack up.

I had a really great time, and hope that all of the other participants had as much fun as I did. It was wonderful to spend a day with so many enthusiastic and talented knitters. I had such a fantastic time that I was totally exhausted when I got home and slept for 13 hours that night! I am looking forward to the next meet-up and to see what everyone has been making.

On a completely unrelated note, I have become completely addicted to Fantastic Contraption over the weekend. Marvelous for all you armchair engineers

I am very excited to announce that I will be helping Rosie Sykes and Jill Brownjohn to run a workshop on Horst Schulz’s Patchwork Knitting Techniques in October. So the salient details:

When?

Saturday 4th October 2008, 9.30 – 5.00

Where?

Liston Hall, Marlow, Buckinghamshire, UK.

How much does it cost?

£35

What will I learn?

Rosie and Jill will cover the basics of mitred squares and joining them together, knitting strips and different joining methods, chevrons, shells, and combining these techniques with machine knitting. I will cover shaping within mitred squares, the methods I used when making my Patchwork Sweater. We we also all be talking about design ideas for what you can do with all these techniques.

How do I find out more / book my place?

Contact Jill Brownjohn for more information and a booking form at telephone 01628 471397. Unfortunately Jill’s email isn’t working at the moment, but you can email me for the booking form at heather@heatherknits.com.

Hope to see you there!

On 8th July Mummy and I went down to Basingstoke for a workshop on rainbow acid dyeing on wool with Jan Blight (unfortunately I don’t think she has a website). It was a lot of fun and I am really looking forward to doing more at home now I have an idea what I am up to.

There were four of us students at the workshop which was a nice number. Enough that we could gain a lot by seeing a great variety of different combinations of the same colours, and how different people approach dyeing in different ways. Yet few enough that there was comfortably enough space for everyone and we could all chat together. We all brought along our own yarns and Jan supplied Kemtex acid dyes and ammonium sulphate fixative. The yarn we took was aran weight, 100% blue faced leicester, from H W Hammand. A lovely yarn, it took the dye well and was a pleasure to knit with. We bought 1kg between us and dyed 100g each at the workshop so there is still 800g left. Mummy has earmarked some of it for a capelet from Nicky Epstein’s Knitting on the Edge: The Essential Collection of Decorative Borders. At the same time as buying the aran weight we also bought 1kg each of the same yarn in DK weight which I am really looking forward to experimenting with.

Jan had mixed up a selection of stock solutions of different colours of dye before our arrival, and after soaking our yarn well, we laid it out on cling film and set to with the colour mixing and painting. I got very carried away mixing different kinds of greens

Once we had finished dyeing, we wrapped up our little cling film parcels and let them sit for half an hour. Then unwrapped the parcels, sprinkled fixative over the yarn, and re-wrapped them to go in the steamer for half an hour. Once the parcels were cool enough we could rinse out the yarn in cool water and hang them up to dry.

For me part of the delight of going along to a workshop rather than just reading things from books is that you can see what a wonderful variety of different yarns everyone produces, starting with the same basic ingredients, and using broadly the same methods. The different combinations that people used, combined with different proportions of colour made all the yarns dyed look completely different. A real feast.

We all brought along pictures for our inspiration, but I’m afraid mine are really only very loosely inspired by them. After the first couple of skeins I just got carried away playing with all the lovely colours The others were a lot more dedicated and it was lovely to see the beautiful and sometimes unexpected colours you can produce when inspired by a picture.

Jan also provided some fine yarn which she had put into very long circumference skeins, like you would do for socks, and some roving for us to play with too. I found the roving quite different to dyeing yarn, the dye didn’t seem to want to absorb as easily and I seemed to have more trouble controlling the colours.

When we got home we were so impatient to be knitting with the yarns that we had to put them in the airing cupboard over night to gee them along a bit.

Probably better than knitting with wet yarn though

When it came to the knitting I was interested to experiment with how the colours would look knitted up in different textures. To give a basic idea I knitted a section of garter stitch, a section of moss stitch (seed stitch to those over the pond) and a section of stocking stitch. Some of our skeins were slightly longer than others so I had enough yarn to knit a little ribbing as well. As you can see I was a bit obsessed with the green.

The palest sample (middle of the top row) shows the effect created when the steamer goes off the boil and you don’t notice until you come to rinse the yarn and all the dye rinses out, by which time it is a bit late. I like the effect of subtle shades of the same colour though and will be having an attempt at replicating this in a more controlled fashion.

On the right is the long skein, with a bit of ribbing at the top, then stocking stitch and then moss stitch, using the same number of stitches that I usually use for socks. I would like to try this again although the big skein was a bit unwieldy. The fibre was supposed to be shades of purple, rather than frighteningly pink. I think I am going to make some felted beads out of it, and make them into a necklace, possibly with a few other bits and pieces to tone it down a bit. That is the plan for now at any rate.

There are loads more photos of the workshop and the yarns here.