Ex-Knitteryarn

A scrapbook of the knitting related things & times and events while the knitting was taking place. 

Filtering by Tag: Rowan Felted Tweed

YELL !

Yell by Gemma Atkinson 

in Rowan Felted Tweed and Colourspun

immediate reassurance parcel got there this time without hitch

immediate reassurance parcel got there this time without hitch

Milla

After marvellous Milla from The Stitch Shop sewed up, Jane revisited her modeling days along with Jealous, the Jack Russell, aged 17. 

 

This sweater was another for my son - I finished up knitting it very late a few Fridays ago. 

 

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Soon after, I was knocked off my bike … had been tootling along in a cycle lane when (in a scene worthy of Tom & Gerry) suddenly the bike went on without me, handlebar attached to the wing mirror of a car and continuing up the bus lane before careening to a halt by the kerb. Meanwhile, I crashed and bounced a few different ways before settling face down in the bus lane at rush hour, where somehow I wasn't flattened by a double decker bus or a cab.

Solicitous passers-by rushed in, kept the traffic back, called an ambulance, put a jacket under my head and generally reassured me, as I lay dazed... after about ten minutes I began to realise I didn’t need the ambulance - I’m bruised and bashed but can still walk and talk and complain long and loud about the fact that I’m having trouble sitting.  And, oh, I absolutely believe I have a guardian angel.

 

All this occurred right across from a hospital, where I was actually headed to visit a patient already in Accident and Emergency – I'd been asked to leave earlier, and now I was back, looking to be admitted myself… even at the time I found this slightly funny...

 

 

Another good thing was when on the following day this arrived...all 674 pages ...which, as I'm a big fan, cheered me up and diverted me as I interspersed hobbling about with reclining, regathering and regrouping.

 

 

It's a great read: unsurprisingly well written and entertaining. It's primarily a loving testimonial to his family, and also offers insight into the highs, lows, stresses, strains and permutations of three generations of traveling minstrel. That family saga tracks the evolution of how popular music has reached its public over that time, and amounts to quite a serious 150 year piece of social history. It wears this dimension lightly though, as it's told in seemingly random anecdotal episodes that team with characters and events - world famous and equally obscure - artists and their songs, a myriad of recording sessions, performances, managers, club owners, television hosts, politicians and their politics, all of whom played parts in the lives of the writer, his family and their music.

It's mentioned that a focal point of the narration was 1865, the year the first edition of Alice in Wonderland was published. However this book has its own rabbit hole potential too... You'll read something, then ask yourself, "Which song?",  and begin checking it out. "Oh, that", you'll think, and unearth a few more. But that's a happy phenomenon attaching to pretty much all Elvis Costello sleeve notes, interviews and interactions, and will be one already familiar to many of his fans.

 

Mind you, in terms of the knitting community (which crops up once or twice in passing), I don't sense he's about to cast on any time soon, or that we'll be hearing him sing

"I used to knit just mufflers,

But now I'm having a go at socks" 

Ah well.

Do buy the book though. 

 

HUGE

Franziska

By Galina Carroll in Rowan Felted Tweed

I opted not to knit the 45cm collar, and those are purple dots every 4th stitch on every 4th row throughout the rust section. Just so you know.

I opted not to knit the 45cm collar, and those are purple dots every 4th stitch on every 4th row throughout the rust section. Just so you know.

Last May illness struck our family but mercifully it turned out that we were only in the throes of one of life’s stunts of perspective, as opposed to out-and-out tragedy. Meaning that what initially had seemed bad turned good, and time, freedom and health suddenly took star billing.  We set a goal to make a trip to London, all going well, to see the RSC's Wolf Hall & Bring Up The Bodies.  And that's how we ended up in sweltering, steaming London in August with a few additional objectives (other than theatre) to get through too. And it's also why I ran - in blazing sun through scores of ambling shoppers - the full length of Regent Street to squeeze in a fly-by of the autumn colours in the Rowan section of Liberty's.

And even if I'd walked in cool as a breeze with nothing else on my mind, on such a day I'd have found it hard to think about winter.... but to say I wasn't cool, and I was struggling to convey what I wanted are understatements.  So Carole simply took over, and pin-pointed colours to which (between gasps) I appeared to respond well.  Then she observed that she and all her colleagues were all massively enjoying knitting Franziska...

"Good enough for me", I said, fanning myself with a theatre programme. - "That's the one I want to try too".

... and gradually a plan began to emerge.

 She advised me to stick to size S, and at the time I was so confused that that seemed reasonable. But when I started to knit, S seemed extraordinarily  optimistic.. 

Now I'm beginning to wish I had, because I did XL instead and it could definitely give a Clint Eastwood poncho a run for its money... I feel like I've fallen into the Land of Lilliput - I'm experiencing a lot of confusion about sizing these days... 

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Hum, haw...

On the other hand it’s clearly intended to be monumentally large and the fabric and yarn are fine…

... haven’t decided yet... too soon, too sore...

 

 

 

Yesterday, with an end finally in sight, I cast off the last stitch and handed over to the ever wonderful Milla of The Stitch Shop to sew up.  

Today...

1. Even typing hurts my neck

2. No way will I get my mother's scarf finished on time for Christmas....   

3. Maybe if I wash my hair I'll be better disposed

But.... when the dust settles on 2014 at the very least, Franziska is likely to make me contemplate just how well things turned out this year.  

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One day old and growing on me (arf)!  

But really - it is!

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