360 degrees of pink October 29, 2007

What a beautiful sunrise earlier this week.  It was dark dark dark at 7:40 a.m. then when I next glanced up at close to 8 a.m. there was the most beautiful array of pink in the sky.  I went outside to get the full view and there was pink everywhere!  I worked hard at trying to turn off the flash on my camera but still couldn’t get it.  Technology – grr!  I must get that figured out for next time.

  here’s a hint of what it was like – this photo was taken earlier this week.  Now we have had the time change so I would have to be up earlier to catch the sunrise.

Today was Marathon Day in Dublin.  Dublin City Marathon.  It was a lovely autumn day and there were almost 11,000 runners pounding the streets of Dublin.  We are very proud of son Andrew who came in well ahead of his goal of breaking the 4 hour mark.  Well done Andrew!!  Here he is approaching the 16 mile mark.

Now to get ready for the Knitting and Stitching Show which is opening on Thursday.  Set-up day is Wednesday.  The Irish Guild of Weavers Spinners & Dyers will have a stand and I hope we have lots of visitors.  Pictures to follow.

Meanwhile I have 2 knitting projects on the needles.  One, a scarf in pink and yellow and the other the eccentric blanket.  The eccentric blanket is almost finished – the stray ends are sewn and only a bit of I-cord border remains to be done.  The pink and yellow scarf is about 3/4 along.

  eccentric blanket at an earlier stage

 pink (Jamieson & Smith) and yellow (Frog Tree) scarf

Statistics for Knitters October 23, 2007

Does anyone have statistics on the numbers of knitters as a percentage of the total population?  Since I write a blog mainly devoted to knitting and I read many other blogs about knitting, I tend to think that the whole world is knitting. 

I am under the impression that the popularity of knitting is on the increase, like book groups.  Recently I was told that there are cooking groups/clubs.  News to me.  But maybe someone in a cooking group thinks that the whole world is cooking. 

Quite often in general conversation when I tell someone that I knit, the reply is “oh, nobody does that anymore.”  Fallacy I say.  But really, how popular is knitting in today’s world?  Two major wool shops in the Dublin area have closed in recent years…..but at least 2 others have opened.   

Has there been a dynamic shift in the age profile of knitters?  Are knitters getting younger?  It is my impression that the Stitch N Bitch groups that are springing up around the country are composed mainly of younger people.  Or maybe it’s my move along the age profile that is changing my perspective and knitting among the 20-40 year old age group has always been popular whether from economic necessity or now in more recent years as a social activity.

 Here in Dublin, the active knitters that I know are younger.  Friends in my age group, say 60 plus, tend to be relapsed knitters.  i.e. they used to knit when their children were small.  No more knitting for them.

In my own family, my mother knit because she just loved to knit.  But after she moved to Hawaii, knitting with wool was just not appropriate to the climate.  She knit a few cotton sweaters but somehow knitting and that hot climate just didn’t go together.  My sisters were very keen knitters – but mostly items for their children.  The children are all grown up now and my sisters no longer knit.  I think of them as lapsed knitters.  Is lapsed the right word?  According to the Oxford English Dictionary lapsed as a verb or noun can have the meaning “a weak or careless decline into an inferior state” – rather harsh isn’t it to consider someone to be in an inferior state just because they used to knit and now no longer do so.

As for myself, I knit a little bit at an early age, lapsed for a while, started knitting again for my children, lapsed again for a few years and detoured into the world of weaving.  More recently, I have returned to knitting with renewed zest.  

Happy knitting everyone. 

Unfinished business October 22, 2007

Back in mid-September before I went on my trip across the pond I was posting some information on words related to fabric.  The blog entry titled Eccentric Blanket Knitting Suspended  posed 2 words and left it to you readers to supply the definitions.  The words were grog and bombast.    Here are the answers,  from Wordsmith       

grog (grog) noun

   1. An alcoholic drink, especially rum diluted with water.

   2. Any strong alcoholic drink.

[After Old Grog, nickname of Admiral Edward Vernon (1684-1757), who ordered
diluted rum to be served to his sailors. The admiral earned the nickname from
his habit of wearing a grogram cloak. Grogram is a coarse fabric of silk,
wool, mohair, or a blend of them. The word grogram is from French gros grain
(large grain or texture).]

bombast (BOM-bast) noun

   Pompous speech or writing.

[From Old French bombace (cotton padding), from Latin bombax (cotton).]

Looking at my stash is getting less scary October 22, 2007

When the family came to visit in August, I carefully tidied away my stash – then it started all tumbling out of the cupboards- and it was scary!  But since then I have plodded away at the eccentric blanket and feel that I have taken somewhat of a chunk out of that stash pile.        Now I am working on the I-cord border.

My other current knitting project is pretty simple – just a stockinette knit scarf – here it is to date

 This past weekend was a very musical one with two days of recorder playing.  It was the occasion of the annual pastoral visit to the Irish Branch of the Society of Recorder Players.  This year our guest conductor was Helen Hooker from Chichester in England.  This isn’t the greatest of pictures but……..  

  The weekend was similar to the Termonfeckin week in August. 

 Here is a much better picture of music making during that week.     

Lawn bowling prize money finally spent October 16, 2007

I had a very good season  of lawn bowling and even had some prize money from the Leinster-Crumlin week in early August.  I decided to set the money aside and use it for something special.  In late August I had my music week at Termonfeckin – the Irish Recorder and Viols Course.  That was such a good week, I decided that I would use my prize money for the purchase of a bass recorder.  And today the new recorder arrived.

I’m delighted!  We have a big recorder playing weekend coming up and I hope I can play it at some point over the weekend. 

As for knitting news, here is the eccentric blanket, which the other resident photographer in the family has labelled “latest weird rug”.    

  I am using all sorts of bits and pieces from my stash – it is a stash reduction project – in this case the stash consists of pieces of knitting and crochet, and even a bit of weaving.

Tank Top Statistics October 13, 2007

My recent yellow adult tank top project is now completed.    I used Debbie Bliss Donegal Aran Tweed, made in Kilcar Ireland.  Colour yellow.  I did a swatch on size 3 1/4 mm needles and my gauge was 4 st/inch and 6 rows per inch.  I calculated a front measurement of 19 inches plus 1 inch for seam allowance.  So I cast on 80 stitches and did about an inch of ribbing.  The yarn is 100% wool 88m/50g per ball.  The recommended needle size is 5 mm.  I purchased 2 balls of the yarn in The Craft Room, Dungannon Northern Ireland in August 2007.           I am not pleased with the result.  It is just plain too wide.  I took it to the Market today but when I tried to display it on my fashion model, it was not attractive.  I  will think again on this one.

Beware of knitting for strangers October 13, 2007

In my previous blog I mentioned that I had finished the pink baby thing.  I was working on it last week at Kilternan Market and a customer had admired it and wanted to buy it when it was finished.  I told her I would try to have it for this Saturday.  I finished it in good time, marked it sold, and displayed it on my table.  The morning was almost over and I had given up hope on the return of this customer.  But no, 5 minutes to go, and in she came with her husband and 4 month old daughter.  She wasn’t wearing her red raincoat of last week so I didn’t recognize her.  They duly admired the “pink baby thing” and promptly bought it.  We were all pleased, even the 4 month old baby!  Hence my warning about knitting for strangers does not apply in this case and there is a happy ending.  You just never know.

Are we still a village? October 11, 2007

   I’ve lived in this part of Dublin for almost 40 years and seen many changes.  The past few years have seen the most dramatic changes of all with the building of a very large new Town Centre, along the lines of an American style shopping mall.  The cranes are still here and the construction continues.  I walked down to the “village” yesterday and wondered to myself if, in fact, we still were a village.  The Town Centre was a buzz – very very noisy and one just feels hyped shortly after entering the automatic doors.  I did a bit of shopping and then had a cup of coffee and read a magazine in a completely interior Starbucks.  (More on that another time)  I was relieved to emerge into the open air again.  It was such a nice afternoon – why had I chosen to have my coffee in that den of an artificially lit and  noisy Starbucks?

 Then the walk back up the hill.  I had met several friends, old and new, en route down to the Town Centre and within the Town Centre itself.  Then on the way back up the hill I saw a friend having a driving lesson – we each smiled and waved – am not sure a learner driver is supposed to do that in the middle of a lesson as she is trying to get out onto the main road.  But having met all these friends in the course of my afternoon, I decided that yes, we are still a village, even though the built-up environment has been altered so drastically.

Now a couple of photos of the knitting project which I just completed and also a current weaving project:

  Pink baby thing finished, knit mostly with Liz Lovick’s North Ronaldsay hand dyed yarn, only a small amount of Jamieson’s DK was used to finish the top.

  Close up of card weaving.  This is one of my projects for the Knitting and Stitching Show, which is coming to Dublin early in November.

Finding interesting books October 10, 2007

I am prompted today to blog about a couple of books I found in Magus 2nd hand bookstore in the University District in Seattle.  This is one of my favourite stores and I was not to be disappointed on my latest trip.  I headed straight for the craft book section – no knitting treasures this time but I found a couple of rather obscure weaving books.       The book about Navajo weavers is actually a reproduction of an article written in 1884 for the Smithsonian Institution Bureau of Ethnology.  And the book about Finger Weaving is one which I have borrowed many times from our local library.  These 2 books cost the grand total of $7.  I’m delighted.

Two other interesting books “discovered” recently were new. 

  Water for Elephants was passed on to me by my daughter-in-law in Connecticut.  And Breaking Clean was purchased in Barnes & Noble in Glastonbury.  Reading these books made the time pass in a hurry as I flew back and forth across North America.

And finally to report on my current knitting project, called the pink baby thing.     It is moving right along and hopefully will be finished by Saturday in time to take to Kilternan Market for an eager customer.

Favourite radio programmes October 7, 2007

Two of my favourite radio programmes are broadcast on Sunday morning starting at 6 a.m. on BBC Radio 4 – Something Understood and On Your Farm.  In Something Understood the theme this morning was the importance of dance.  To quote from the website:

“Felicity Finch reflects on childhood ballet lessons, adult salsa classes and observations of dance-like movement in everyday life through the writings of Isadora Duncan, Rudolph Laban, Gunter Grass and Gabrielle Roth. She talks to retired priest Colin MacLean, who considers dance a form of prayer and intends to devote the rest of his life to dancing.”

The discussion lead to all sorts of mental associations for me at that early hour of the morning.  Rhythm and movement.  The joy and freedom to be experienced in running – expressed so well in the book I had just finished reading – Breaking Clean by Judy Blunt.   And a lovely image of 5 year old granddaughter Ashley running and skipping rope at the same time.  How many of you can still do that???  Not me!

How does the above relate to knitting?  Well, I’m not sure that it does unless you want to examine the process of knitting in terms of rhythm and movement.  My mental wandering went more in the direction of my music lessons where I am trying so hard to develop a good sense of rhythm.  The most recent clarinet lesson had developed into a discussion of syncopation – which all seems like that old exercise of trying to pat the top of your head with one hand and rub your stomach with the other.  Well, at least we don’t have to do that when we try to knit!!

And On Your Farm this morning was about a pig farm near the M25 on the outskirts of London.  Again, to quote from the website:

“On Your Farm returns with a visit to Essex to meet Tracy Mackness who, at the age of 37, was given a ten-year prison sentence for her part in a drugs conspiracy. This week she won a national award for entrepreneurs, just eight months after coming out of prison. Tracy tells Charlotte Smith about her extraordinary fall and rise, her love affair with Saddleback pigs, her role in television’s Jimmy’s Farm and how she built a business from scratch – breeding pigs, making sausages and selling them under the label Giggly Pig – in just eight months.”

 

I am a fan of the TV series Jimmy’s Farm so it was especially interesting to hear how this woman had been influenced by Jimmy and his farm.

 

Now for the latest progress report on my real-life knitting project.      This is the Debbie Bliss Donegal Aran Tweed tank top.  I’m not sure whether it is finished or not.  I have used the 2 skeins of yarn.  I think the shoulder straps are a bit far apart.  I’m thinking about adding a panel in a contrasting colour to reduce the width.