Alkanet

After a very very (did I say very?) cold Spring the garden is finally starting to look lush and green and full of the promise of early summer.

The Whitebeam buds are finally starting to open…

The Cow Parsley in the ‘lawn’ (I use that word in its loosest possible sense!)  is glorious…I do love Cow Parsley and all its umberlliferous (what a great word!) relatives.

The roses are in bud and the strawberry plants are covered in flowers and small green fruits. The boys, the middle one in particular, are giving us regular updates on their progress and I don’t expect to actually taste many ripe strawberries unless I’m up very early come late June!!

It’s also the exact time that this plant does its wonderful Spring thing…

It’s Green Alkanet, although it took me years to identify it correctly! it is reminiscent of Borage, Comfrey and other hairy, large-leaved, blue flowered relatives but the flowers are much more like Forget-me-nots in the purest cornflower blue with perfect white centres…

It is a member of the Borage family and very closely related to Alkanna Tinctoria – or Dyer’s Bugloss. You see the root can be used as a natural dye to obtain the most amazing greys and silvers…

Especially when in the hands of an expert!

I was prompted to get the camera out and contemplate Alkanet by this wonderful cake of yarn! A customer asked if I would mind winding 800m of Natural Dye Studio ‘Angel’ in ‘Silver’ from skein in to ‘cake’ for her… I was more than happy to oblige and while merrily winding away I happened to be looking out at the Green Alkanet doing it’s ‘thing’ in my borders, along the edges of paths and between paving slabs…

It’s a persistent ‘wild flower’ is Green Alkanet and it’s taken me a while to come to terms with its free range habit maybe once I’d identified it and realised how closely it is related to the wondrous plant that Amanda uses to make all her fabulous silver yarns it grew on me!

Promise…

I love the start of a new project.

I’ve just turned this…

into this…

in anticipation of a lace scarf.

I’ve not quite found the right pattern but have a simple vision so have been doing some of this…

and this…

and a few rows of this just to see…

or maybe this…

A simple plan coming together, to create (I hope!) a whole new thing of beauty.

‘Cos when mum says she’d quite like a scarf in a warm orangey colour to brighten up a boring beige jacket it seems like the perfect excuse to liberate a skein of Natural Dye Studio Scheherazade in ‘Spice’ and see what I can come up with…

Sustainable knitting!

This weekend sees our local farm shop host the Suffolk Herring Festival. A celebration of this wonderful little fish that visits our shores each year. The festival includes demonstrations showing how to prepare and cook Herring, traditional skills such as net and withy making and plenty of music, singing – and of course eating!

The finale is an auction of knitted fish! Seeing as the host of our local ‘Stitch & Sip’ group is the collection point for the fish we couldn’t help but join in the knitting fun! Members have been busy creating  amazing woolly sea creatures from flat fish to crustaceans and even an amazing octopus! My humble contribution is a rather flamboyant looking Herring…

A make-it-up-as-I-went-along pattern and lots of embellishment after I spotted a rather nice bag of pearls and beads in a local antique shop for a few pence!

Some left over Natural Dye Studio sock yarn lurking in my stash seemed appropriate!

The auction raises money for the Marine Conservation Trust. Let’s hope my little fella helps the cause! I just have to stop the children entering a bidding frenzy after they all took a shine to him!!

Gold silk… made with love

A little something rolled off the needles last week…

It is always a real pleasure to knit with Amanda’s amazing Natural Dye Studio yarns, especially the wonderful Precious silk which is truly a very special experience.

This simple lace scarf (Ravelry link) was a gift for my mum, whose birthday was this past weekend. A while on the needles, it was a pleasure to turn to it when simple, soothing knitting was required after a busy day. An easily memorised pattern repeat meant not too much ‘tinking’ (although obviously I was still making mistakes an inch from the end!!) and hopefully some of the calm moments making it will stay within it… it’s been a trying year throughout our extended family with plenty of stress, sadness & worry but the safe arrival of my wonderful niece 7 weeks ago (who I finally got to cuddle at the weekend!) hopefully signalled the start of a healthier, happier, more peaceful time.

Mum ‘doesn’t do wool’ – it terrorises her sensitive skin and she can’t wear it anywhere but especially not near her neck. I think I may be able to show her that some of our finest merino wools are not the itchy, scratchy ‘wool’ that she has in mind but that’s a mission for another day! In the meantime, I hope she enjoys this touch of silky luxury…

Swag!

As you might expect I had a thoroughly nice time at Knit Nation this past weekend. Really, a huge room full of incredibly beautiful yarn, needles, books an other goodies, how could it possibly not have been wonderful?

As well as mooch, fondle, occasionally spend – and of course knit – I also got the chance to chat with lots of folks I rarely see (being tucked away in deepest darkest Suffolk!) but feel I know… albeit only via the strangely-cropped-top-left-corner-of-their-head/their pet/their favourite knitted project as captured in their Ravelry/Twitter/Facebook avatar! It’s funny how seeing someone’s entire face can sometimes be a bit of a shock

As well as the marketplace I paid an extended visit to the ‘Knit-Tea-Salon’ where refreshments were plentiful and comfy seats available in which to knit and sip and chat and star spot! Lots of conversations revolved around purchases and projects and quite honestly I’ve never seen so many people (of both genders) wearing shawls & shawlettes in a single room!

Ysolda was holding fort with her new publication ‘Little Red in the City’ and her now infamous photo-booth whereby visitors were able to take home a self portrait sporting an Ysolda knit and if lucky, the lady herself in the shot! We’ll be taking delivery of the new book in the next couple of weeks – fingers crossed!

MSF were there with their fabulous P/HOP stand and looked to be doing a roaring trade and I was easily tempted into a Selvedge subscription which I’ve been promising myself for years!

But down to the nitty-gritty… I promised I would be restrained, considered and particular with my purchases and after 3 circuits of the marketplace (the first one was so crowded it was difficult to see anything, the second was to weigh up the options & consider the possibilities and the third was with the purse out & open!) I made some delightful purchases…

Well Manor Farm

This is a skein of Shetland 2ply (with a 4 ply gauge) from Well Manor Farm. I was keen to hunt down this stand as they are a small farm based in Sussex who have a wonderful flock whose fleeces are locally spun before going back to the farm for dying. This is a brown/grey shade which I was on a mission to find to team up with this…

Auld Gold

Not technically Knit Nation swag, this amazing skein of Babylonglegs Semi Precious was an impluse purchase from Sarah last week. One of those serendipitous moments where I just happened to be looking at Twitter just as Sarah posted her ’5 minutes to shop update’ tweet and so I dutifully clicked through (would’ve been rude not to, eh!) and saw this hank of amazingness! It’s called Auld Gold and it’s really an almost grungy muted gold with a brassy hint of green about it – very difficult to do justice in a pic or with words!

It will be teamed with the Shetland to make one of these:

© Veera Välimäki

It’s Different Lines by Veera Välimäki, of whom I am a big fan… watch this space!

I haven’t quite decided what to do with the rest of my booty…

At the front you can see a skein of Scheherazade from the Natural Dye Studio. This was kindly pressed upon me by Amanda so that I can experience it’s delights for myself before duly stocking the shop full of it! It’s an amazing blend of Silk and Baby Camel and it is soooo soft and soooo shiny I will have to come up with a very special project to do it justice!

Tucked away behind it are two wonderful skeins of Organic Corriedale 4 ply from Old Maiden Aunt… the colours (Pumpkin Pie & Moody) are a rich marigold and a deep teal. I’m thinking maybe stranded mittens?

Finally, I indulged in a cone of Habu 100% silk. My first Habu purchase but surely not my last. Their stand was a treasure trove of colour, texture and I was completely hooked and I’m really hoping that Habu might be part of the Meadow Yarn range very soon!

 

Perfect knitting weather…

Well… the weather has been perfect this week and we’re obviously still knitting!

Aside from casting on for a chunky tweed cardigan for Chris (the first ever!) of which you’ll hear more later this week, my thoughts are turning to lighter weight, airy knits. Lace knitting will be perfect for whiling away the hours I intend to spend sipping cold ginger beer in the dappled shade of the birch tree in our garden (well, a girl can dream can’t she!) Obviously the children will be playing delightful, harmonious games (quietly) while I do this and not demanding endless drinks, snacks and falling out over what to play and whose turn it is to be Yoda (!) while simultaneously falling off bikes, out of trees and into patches of stinging nettles!

Because some of you might actually be living my dream we’ve got a fabulous offer on our favourite lace weight yarns and the needles to match… Until the end of April (Saturday 30th) lace yarns from Fyberspates, Natural Dye Studio, Austermann, Rowan, Noro & Manos del Uruguay are all 15% off. There’s also 15% off Addi Lace Circular needles, the perfect tools for delicate projects in luxurious yarns…

A very Precious Swallowtail

Our most local yarn artisan is the wonderful Natural Dye Studio who dye their amazing yarns just a hop, skip and a jump from the Meadow…

As might be expected they are very popular with my local customers, in fact some find it just too hard to say ‘No’ when the new delivery arrives (you know who you are!!)

And who can blame them when it’s possible (seemingly in the blink of an eye) to turn a skein of Precious Lace silk yarn into this amazing thing of beauty…

My friend Liz is a very talented (and very prodigious!) knitter and the evidence is right here for all to see! Kindly loaned to me so that I may capture its beauty and share it with you all (apologies for the second-rate model, I couldn’t possibly do it justice!!)

The pattern is Evelyn Clarke’s Swallowtail shawl which is a free download available via her web site here

I will be carefully delivering the shawl back to Liz this evening at the regular Stitch & Sip at Main’s restaurant in Yoxford where no doubt it will again solicit gasps of wonder and admiration.

Just one little cloud in a blue blue sky…

Well, Enid is almost finished bar some jigging around with the neck, weaving in ends and blocking… Now we’ve hit mid-summer I wonder how many weeks it will languish before those final finishing touches are applied – ahem!!

Having worked with the gorgeous Alpaca 4 ply for so many weeks and with the arrival of some much needed summer weather I had been contemplating a little ‘lighter’ knitting for my next project. Enter Cloud…

This cake of dreamy Merino Silk lace weight from the Natural Dye Studio in a subtle heathery shade of dusky pinky beige is destined to become a gorgeous Annis shawl. As soon as this pattern appeared as a Knitty ‘surprise’ recently I knew it would be on the needles before long.  A nice, lightweight, airy knit for hot summer days spent lounging under a tree (well, a girl can dream!) and hopefully complete in time for cooler evenings when its Merino warmth will be just the thing…

Casting on 363 stitches ‘German’ style was challenging but the first few rows of the lace pattern are settling into a nice rhythm and I have a good feeling about Annis. I’ll keep you in the loop!

A mystery no more!

Well, I finally finished the Mystery Socks started on October 1st to celebrate ‘Socktoberfest’. They were a pleasure to knit – just my sort of project with the right combination of interesting construction and yet easy enough not to have to pore over charts late into the evening! I used some Natural Dye Studio Dazzle sock yarn that had been waiting for the right project and the results are a very soft, toasty pair of socks just in time for some chilly weather…

Socktoberfest 2009!

I have a penchant for hand knitted socks, indeed a pair of socks were my first ‘finished object’ as an adult knitter. It was the desire to knit socks from wonderful yarn that forced me to make the leap from ‘learning to knit’ random squares to a full-on project (and one with 5 double pointed needles, heel turning and toe grafting to boot!)

pomatamus

I usually have a pair of socks on the needles… small enough to carry around lest there should be an ‘opportunity to knit’ while playing at a friends house with a total of 6 children between us (there never is but we live in hope) or watching over my 3 at the local park (there never is but we live in hope), complex enough to keep me engaged – I like a little bit of lace and the odd fancy heel flap to up the ante!

And here we are again… Socktoberfest. The annual month of celebratory sock knitting. For me, celebrating the change in season to sock-wearing weather (we often have that in July here as well but we don’t celebrate that!) and welcoming in the ‘proper’ knitting season – there’s something not-quite-right about knitting on the beach unless you’ve got a tweed blanket over your knees and a Thermos by your side.

This year I have a Mystery Sock on the needles courtesey of Kirsten from Through the Loops who hosted a similar Knit-a-long (KAL) last year to rapturous applause.  Somehow, dividing a sock pattern up into 4 chunks a revealing them week by week results in a perfect pair of socks, complete & resplendant with no hint of the dreaded ‘single sock syndrome’. It’s only day 4 of the KAL and sock 2/clue 1 is almost complete so I have high hopes. I’m using a particularly wonderful shade of Dazzle sock weight yarn from the Natural Dye Studio…

Dazzle - aqua

Just to make Socktoberfest just that little bit more enjoyable we’ve also got 10% off all our sock yarn for the whole of October – so there’s no excuse not to be just as excited about socks as we are!