Year of Projects 4: 24 February update

I wasn't sure I was going to be able to rustle up another FO for this week's update, especially after the success of a pair of socks in a week last week. With the socks off the needles, the only YoP projects I had on the go were all long term affairs. Pogona is progressing well, but hasn't changed enough to be worthy of having more photos taken. My test knit of my Star Trek charts for my nerdy sofa cushions hasn't got to an interesting stage yet, consisting mostly of a large rectangle of black stocking stitch, so there's no pictures of that either. And Chunari is still hibernating, although I did briefly get it out and look at it the other day. I really do need to be in the right mood for laceweight knitting!

The other night, however, I decided to cast on something else from my queue, something which would hopefully be a nice quick knit. The Jayne Cobb hat. Unfortunately, I didn't have a circular needle of the right length, so I had to cast on with DPNs, which made for a very awkward knitting process and rather slow progress.

However, I went to Unravel at the weekend (where I spent a lovely couple of hours wandering about the place with Sarah from Crafts from the Cwtch and Wink of A Creative Being). I only made a few purchases (which completely blew my budget out of the water).

Among all the yarn pretties, you will have noticed a new cable for my interchangeable needles. I now have a 16" cable, which means knitting hats of any size just became a whole lot easier! As soon as I got home, I fixed up the cable with my 7mm needles, and transferred the stitches across. Needless to say, the hat got knit a whole lot quicker after that!

More on the hat in a moment while I digress slightly to talk about the yarns I purchased. Despite not having yet knit a single stitch on the three Easyknits skeins I already own, I picked up two more. The first was definitely on my list of things to buy, a sushi sock roll to knit Jon's Orbit shawl with. I bought the pattern at Unravel last year, and have been holding off knitting it until I had the perfect gradiated skein of yarn to use. I spent a long time debating colours, but settled on Killer Queen, which is a gorgeous combination of electric blue, purple and pink. Of course, I spent so long at Jon's stand that I couldn't help myself, and another skein of Deeply Wicked sort of fell into my hands as well. Another electric blue, as I've grown fond of the colour since knitting my Arctic socks last week!

The third skein I picked up is something I've been wanting to get my hands on for a while. Indigodragonfly yarns have been on my want list for many years, and it's all Keri's fault. I've been reading about all the indigodragonfly yarns she uses for years, and long lamented its lack of availability in this country. But at Unravel last year I discovered that Aragon Yarns are the only UK stockist of this gorgeous yarn, so when I saw their name on the exhibitor list again this year I decided I was definitely going to walk away from the show with something. Not only is the yarn gorgeously soft (it's merino/cashmere/nylon - way too nice for socks if you ask me, I shall be using it for a shawl) and dyed in fantastic colours, it's the names of the colourways which really makes this yarn stand out. Each colour is named after a fabulously geeky quote. The colour I chose is My name is Indigo Montoya, which is a play on words on a quote from The Princess Bride. I'm not adding any of these yarns to my list this year, but I guarantee you that when July rolls around this year, this skein will be top of my list!

Anyhoo, back to my FO for the week. Once I'd switched to the circulars, I flew through the rest of the hat and finished it on Sunday morning.

I made a few modifications to the pattern as written, because I was working with a chunkier yarn and Jamie has a big head. I cast on 64 stitches, did 2x2 rib instead of 1x1 (mainly because I hate doing 1x1), and made the whole thing longer. It's got about 4 inches of orange after the inch of rib, and then 4 inches of yellow before the very sharp decreases. I also added a couple of rows of icord on the ear flaps before casting off.

Jamie claimed it didn't need a pom pom, but I wanted to stay true to the original hat as seen in Firefly. So he got a red and orange pom pom, but it's not particularly bulky. I'm pleased with the finished hat, and he loves it too. And more importantly, I can cross another FO off my list!

Unravel 2014

This past weekend was the weekend of Unravel, a knitting festival held annually at the Farnham Maltings centre in Farnham, Surrey. I've been for the past couple of years, but this year was in two minds about whether or not I should go. There was no pressing need to buy any particular yarn and for the most part, I reasoned that most of the vendors would be the same. In fact, there would be large gaping hole in the list of vendors, since A Stash Addict took a break and isn't dyeing yarn at the moment.

It was Sarah over at Crafts from the Cwtch who convinced me to go, with a very lovely "it wouldn't be the same without you" comment on her Facebook page. So, I ordered my ticked and said to myself that I would go for a couple of hours, treat myself to a nice skein of yarn if one caught my eye and just say hello to the folks I know from last year.

I actually ended up staying for six hours, and had an absolutely fantastic time. The yarn stalls were almost incidental to the whole day! Sarah said it quite well herself last year in her post about Unravel 2013.

The main hall towards the end of the day

I got there pretty early, which meant I had a chance to wander round on my own in the relative quiet before the crowds really arrived. It seemed more spread out this year, although I'm not sure if that is a result of fewer vendors or the Maltings using more of the space available to them.

The other big difference between this year's festival and previous years, was the lack of large quantities of yarn bombing outside the venue. Last year, it was everywhere, with road signs and balloons among the many decorations.

This pigeon was one of the only pieces I found
outside the venue this year

I met up with Sarah fairly early in the day; she was there with the lovely Wink from A Creative Being who had flown in from the Netherlands to come to Unravel. It didn't occur to me on Saturday, but I have today been giggling about our rhyming names. Wink and Tink! We should team up and fight crime, or something. Armed with crochet hooks. Anyway... we were joined by Tanya from A Yarn Loving Mama, and as we wandered round we spent far more time saying hello to fellow Ravellers, Instagrammers and bloggers than we did shopping. Sarah's mum, Lynda (star of the Great British Sewing Bee!) popped along for a bit as well, and then our walk around became even more entertaining. It was like hanging out with a celebrity!

Everyone was stopping her to say "OMG, you're Lynda from the Sewing Bee! Can I have a picture?". We joked she should have brought a pile of signed photos to hand out.

Of course, in-between the many hours of chatting and giggling (and there was a fair amount of giggling), I did find time to do a little bit of shopping.

I just love this year's logo

This year's bag is a bit sturdier than last year's. I keep my knitting needles in last year's bag but this one I think I will use to store projects in.

I can't believe I spent less than half of the money I took with me! Aside from the project bag and those two gorgeous green vintage buttons, the only stall I bought anything from was Easyknits! I spent a long while lusting after their yarn last year, but didn't buy any, so decided this year if I was going to treat myself, I would treat myself to some Deeply Wicked sock yarn.

The green will become a shawl, because I don't have a green one (as I gave Wingspan away). The other skein, with it's wonderful combination of green, pink and purple.. I think that will sit in my stash for quite a while until I decide what to do with it!

I also picked up three of Jon's patterns, as he was selling them on a really good offer (3 for £5!). Only Orbit appears to be listed on Ravelry though. The Traveling Ammonite shawl looks awesome, as it's knit in a spiral so you're only ever knitting a few stitches at a time, despite it becoming a giant circular shawl. I think, for my birthday later in the year, I may treat myself to one of his Sushi Shawl Along Clubs.

All in all, it was an absolutely excellent day, although I was extremely tired by the time I got home! I am very glad I let Sarah convince me to go, and will definitely be heading back next year!

Unravel 2013

Saturday morning saw me waking up at an entirely unreasonable-for-a-weekend time of 8am, to head down to Farnham for this year's Unravel. Checking my phone, I discovered I was actually the lazy one, as Sarah had already been tweeting with excitement almost an hour earlier!

Some of the wonderful items on show around and outside the venue.

As expected, we saw an overwhelming selection of wonderful yarns. I'm glad I took a shopping list with me, otherwise I would have bought far too many skeins I have no need for!

I ran into Sarah outside, as we queued to get in. After a leisurely wander round to orientate ourselves and take a first glance over the stalls, we headed over to Danielle's stall to meet up with fellow Ravellers. Along the way we picked up Nat and Gilly. It was great to finally meet folks in the flesh after sharing our lives with each other for so long online.

Some selected yarn porn from the day. Top row (L-R): A Stash Addict and Indigodragonfly (sold by Aragon Yarns)
Bottom Row (L-R): Sparkleduck, Skein Queen and Natural Dye Studio

I was very excited to discover a UK stockist of Indigodragonfly yarn. Keri has long inspired me to want to buy and knit with this yarn, as everything I've seen her knit using it is fabulous. I resisted buying any this time, but now I know where I can find it, I will definitely consider it next time I am looking for the perfect yarn for a project.

So what did I buy? Last year I came away with one solitary Zauberball (which has just been knit into a Lazy Katy). This year, I went armed with a list, and managed to come away with only one extra skein of yarn.

My purchases

First up on my list was a skein of fingering weight yarn in red, which I will be casting on immediately as I join in Eskimimi's Mrs Tumnus KAL. I squished quite a few skeins from various stalls before settling on this lovely Skein Queen Blush.

It's 80% Merino, 20% Cashmere so it feels very luxurious. I really enjoyed knitting up my Skein Queen Squash (100% merino) so I'm sure I willl enjoy this one too. It's listed as a sport weight, so I will swatch carefully to ensure I hit gauge, but I'm sure the yardage will be ok.

I'd promised myself a skein of Dark Arts from A Stash Addict; I've wanted one ever since she first started dyeing them, but couldn't really justify it until now. But now that I've been converted to sock knitting, I wanted to treat myself. This skein jumped out at me as soon as I got to Danielle's stall. The colourway is Poison and I just love the bright pink/purple against the black. I have to say, having seen all her photos on Instagram this past week of just how hard she worked to get ready for Unravel at such short notice, Danielle did an amazing job. Her stall looked fantastic. I couldn't resist buying more than one skein!

It's another Dark Arts, this time the Dark Arts Sparkle, which has silk content as well as the sparkly fibre. Colourway is Night Caller, and it's a much softer lilac purple than my other skein. While the first is destined to be socks, I can't bear the thought of hiding these beautiful sparkles in my shoes, so this one will become a scarf/shawl. Not sure what yet, as all the Rock + Purl patterns I fell in love with at their stall are laceweight!

I also picked up this ball of Jawoll Magic Degrade. On my list was "another Zauberball in bright colours?" but I didn't see any of those, so when I found this I knew it had to be bought. Again, it will become a shawl, probably a Wingspan, after nosing through the finished projects and finding this one in the same colourway. Isn't it fab!

As you can see in the pic of my purchases above, I also picked up some funky wooden buttons from Danielle, and a teeny tiny crochet hook for better attaching of beads to my Light of Earendil shrug.

All in all, it was a great way to spend five hours of my Saturday (although I was amazed when I got back to the car and realised it had been five hours, as it really didn't feel like it while we were wandering around and nattering away). Hopefully it won't be another full year before we all get together though, as it would be great to meet up with folks inbetween now and next year's Unravel!

Unravel 2012

A little while ago, I saw someone mention Unravel and thought I might fancy going along. After all, Farnham is only down the road from us here, so it seemed rude not to go along! I convinced two of my friends to go along with me, so I wasn't going by myself. None of us really knew what to expect.

After frantically finishing my fingerless gloves on the Saturday morning so I could wear them along (after all, it is important to show of your own hand knits at places like this, right?), Sunday was actually a really lovely warm day; too hot for gloves! I compromised, putting them in my pockets "just in case" it was cooler there than it was at home and instead relying on my Jane Austen shawl (worn as a scarf) to demonstrate to my fellow show-goers that I was a serious crafter. Of course, it being too warm for a coat, I then undid all of that pretentiousness by wearing a black cardigan from Primark.

Knitted balloons!

The local knit groups had been on a bit of a yarn bombing drive in the previous week, so Farnham was covered in yarny treats, particularly in the direct vicinity of the venue.

Look! Crocheted yarn bomb!

As expected, I spent a lot of time ooohing and aaahing over beautiful displays of yarn in a wonderful rainbow of colour.

Fyberspates. I may have stood here for a while, wondering if I should
buy anything or if it was too expensive for my tastes.

Easy Knits. I just love the green in the top right corner.

This wonderful display is Knit by Numbers by Fibre Harvest

I was incredibly tempted by almost everything that I saw, and spent almost as much time trying to get Ravelry pages to load on my phone as I did fondling skeins of yarn! As you all know, I am not a fan of buying yarn without a Plan for it. After much consideration, I only bought one ball of yarn. This one:

My very own Zauberball

After seeing Chrissy's latest FO on Friday, I decided I wanted to follow her lead, and knit the same shawl. Looking through the many projects on Ravelry, it became clear that Zauberball was a great yarn choice for the pattern, so when I spotted a basketful on a stall I knew I was going to walk away with some if they had the right colour. I'm sure you would have all expected me to plump for a purple or pink selection, but I just love this blue/black combination and think it will really work in that shawl.

Of course, we found time for cake!

The other highlight of the day, besides all the wonderful yarn, was meeting Sarah from Crafts from the Cwtch! Sarah was rocking her newly finished Hitchhiker and I have to say, it looks just as fab in the flesh as it does in her blog photos.

I think the main thing I have taken away from my trip to Unravel is now I know which of the "posh" yarns I read so much about are worth my time! I know which ones feel nice, which ones have the best colours... I also developed a new appreciation for natural colours, as the display from Toft Alpaca was wonderful (and I want to fill my house with their alpaca pom poms). I can see myself making purchases from them and from Nude Ewe in the future!

Olympia is too soon after this one to warrant the additional expense of travelling into London, but I'm going to try and make space in my calendar to go to Alexandra Palace in October.