Oops - forgot to add that this is where I got my labels from:
The only took a week or so (but can take up to 28 days) and they have a brilliant range of colours, very reasonable.
Also, just got this thanks from Caroline whose very long scarf has just reached her in Staffordshire - this is why it's so good to give knitted stuff isn't it? When people really appreciate it, makes it all worthwhile.
Dear Helen,
Thank you for my terrific scarf which I received the other day. I love the colours and am soooo impressed at the workmanship! Must have taken you hours. Also delighted to learn it has cashmere and merino in it as I am a high maintenance sort of bird and this really cuts the mustard. The label is v cool and I think you should start flogging these items at craft fairs/markets etc. Nice little sideline! The scarf is, as you say, also exceedingly long and once it’s wrapped round and round my neck I’d have no problem weathering arctic temperatures!!
All in all a great success and thank you so much! Enjoy Espana.
Caroline xxx
Right, I really am off now, I am desperately tired and need to do some sleeping before I head off to Spain.
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
Merry Knitmas and a Happy New Yarn
Mmm, so after a bizarre hyper energy last night knitting with Miss Spiritual Tramp's Knitting Club (we had five newbies!) I also thought it would be a great idea to leave you all with a seasonal shot of seasonal socks*.
And wouldn't it be even greater to pose with the sock in front of the Christmas tree?
Ooh and wouldn't it be a simply fabulous idea to turn the lights off so you can enjoy the tree in all its glory?
Well no, actually, the pictures are crap and I've got pain which has been keeping me awake all night so I am now totally wired and tired. Perfect!
*These are my Christmas present for my mum although they will have to be finished out in Spain so will be late for Christmas. I'm halfway through the second sock and still enjoying the pattern (unusual for a second sock I find).
Anyway, I'm off to Spain tomorrow before dawn so it really doesn't matter that I will get virtually no work done today and will have to go to bed for a few hours instead. I'm away for two weeks guys so you won't get any blogging from me until the New Year. It's been a top year of blogging and making knitblog friends across the world.
And wouldn't it be even greater to pose with the sock in front of the Christmas tree?
Ooh and wouldn't it be a simply fabulous idea to turn the lights off so you can enjoy the tree in all its glory?
Well no, actually, the pictures are crap and I've got pain which has been keeping me awake all night so I am now totally wired and tired. Perfect!
*These are my Christmas present for my mum although they will have to be finished out in Spain so will be late for Christmas. I'm halfway through the second sock and still enjoying the pattern (unusual for a second sock I find).
Anyway, I'm off to Spain tomorrow before dawn so it really doesn't matter that I will get virtually no work done today and will have to go to bed for a few hours instead. I'm away for two weeks guys so you won't get any blogging from me until the New Year. It's been a top year of blogging and making knitblog friends across the world.
Merry Knitmas to all of you and here's to a Happy New Yarn (er, I mean Year, Happy New Year!)
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Labels
I copied Lixie and ordered myself some foxy labels:
Oh so professional. 
But you will have to wait a while for me to tell you where I got them from because it is a secret! Tee hee! (Purlpower cackles mysteriously up her sleeves)
Friday, December 09, 2005
More hats
You were promised more hats by the end of the week and more hats is what you shall get. Three pictures although there are actually only two hats.
I made a purple hat for my friend Jenny who lives out in Spain.
I tried to take a natural light pic* (yawn, I'm actually boring myself now!) to show off the richness of the purple but as you can see this failed miserably. You'll just have to take my word for it that this particular purple is the finest purple I have ever knit with. It's a luscious deep purple with tiny flecks of red and blue giving it even more depth.
Jenny's partner, Trev, gets a matching style hat, slightly larger in baby blue.
Here comes the nerdy bit:
Pattern: Ribbed brim hat from Twilley's Freedom Collection (Jenny's is small size, Trev's is medium)
Yarn: Twilley's Freedom (100% merino, chunky weight) in purple and baby blue. Each hat took just under one ball.
Needles: Jenny's hat - 8mm and 9mm wooden needles (brim is done on smaller size needles)
Trev's hat - 8mm wooden needles
Finished: 08.12.05
Comments: The pattern recommends 10mm needles for this yarn but I always knit it using 8 or 9mm because I am so loose, baby. I'm not sure if Twilley's are still making this wool, certainly Fenwicks in Newcastle are no longer stocking it and I haven't seen it for sale anywhere else**. I bought up all their sale stock of it last year and it was a canny move. It worked out at two quid a ball which for 100gm of pure merino is a good deal in my book. I suspect that a garment made out of this wool would lose its shape almost immediately as the yarn has no twist to it at all, similar in construction to Rowan's (now discontinued) Polar yarn. For hats, mitts and other small accessories though it's a great yarn to work with and has excellent yardage. It also felts like a dream. I know this not because I have deliberately felted it myself but because Kenny's friend Tandy is the infamous 'man who put his merino hat in the washing machine at 60 degrees'. Apparently it came out looking like an egg cosy. I was feeling very generous last week and in a moment of madness knitted him a replacement. He won't be getting another one if he doesn't look after it.
After a spot of knitting tomorrow morning in the Station Cafe with the other Centurions I'm off to Cambridge to see my good friend Satnam - he is the Ja Woll enabler who sent me sock yarn from Germany earlier in the year. Back on Tuesday next week - be good!
*Your kind comments re. twonky docs and light and the like are really helping me to keep it together. I'm saving up for one of the alarm clocks that wake you up with natural light as several people have recommended them to me as a more affordable way of getting the SAD lamp effects. In the long term I'll probably try and get a SAD desk lamp as well though. Oh and yes Sharon, you must put the peanut butter and the marmite on the same piece of toast, but it HAS to be crunchy, slightly salted, no sugar, wholesome peanut butter as in the picture below and on no account should you try some crazy sugary Sun-Pat + salty marmite combo because that way madness lies. Madness I tell you.
**Amended to add: I have found an online stockist of the yarn for you, although the price has gone up slightly it's still a very good deal for a 100% merino. The colours I used are listed as 'sky blue' and 'heather'.
I made a purple hat for my friend Jenny who lives out in Spain.
I tried to take a natural light pic* (yawn, I'm actually boring myself now!) to show off the richness of the purple but as you can see this failed miserably. You'll just have to take my word for it that this particular purple is the finest purple I have ever knit with. It's a luscious deep purple with tiny flecks of red and blue giving it even more depth.
Jenny's partner, Trev, gets a matching style hat, slightly larger in baby blue.
Here comes the nerdy bit:
Pattern: Ribbed brim hat from Twilley's Freedom Collection (Jenny's is small size, Trev's is medium)
Yarn: Twilley's Freedom (100% merino, chunky weight) in purple and baby blue. Each hat took just under one ball.
Needles: Jenny's hat - 8mm and 9mm wooden needles (brim is done on smaller size needles)
Trev's hat - 8mm wooden needles
Finished: 08.12.05
Comments: The pattern recommends 10mm needles for this yarn but I always knit it using 8 or 9mm because I am so loose, baby. I'm not sure if Twilley's are still making this wool, certainly Fenwicks in Newcastle are no longer stocking it and I haven't seen it for sale anywhere else**. I bought up all their sale stock of it last year and it was a canny move. It worked out at two quid a ball which for 100gm of pure merino is a good deal in my book. I suspect that a garment made out of this wool would lose its shape almost immediately as the yarn has no twist to it at all, similar in construction to Rowan's (now discontinued) Polar yarn. For hats, mitts and other small accessories though it's a great yarn to work with and has excellent yardage. It also felts like a dream. I know this not because I have deliberately felted it myself but because Kenny's friend Tandy is the infamous 'man who put his merino hat in the washing machine at 60 degrees'. Apparently it came out looking like an egg cosy. I was feeling very generous last week and in a moment of madness knitted him a replacement. He won't be getting another one if he doesn't look after it.
After a spot of knitting tomorrow morning in the Station Cafe with the other Centurions I'm off to Cambridge to see my good friend Satnam - he is the Ja Woll enabler who sent me sock yarn from Germany earlier in the year. Back on Tuesday next week - be good!
*Your kind comments re. twonky docs and light and the like are really helping me to keep it together. I'm saving up for one of the alarm clocks that wake you up with natural light as several people have recommended them to me as a more affordable way of getting the SAD lamp effects. In the long term I'll probably try and get a SAD desk lamp as well though. Oh and yes Sharon, you must put the peanut butter and the marmite on the same piece of toast, but it HAS to be crunchy, slightly salted, no sugar, wholesome peanut butter as in the picture below and on no account should you try some crazy sugary Sun-Pat + salty marmite combo because that way madness lies. Madness I tell you.
**Amended to add: I have found an online stockist of the yarn for you, although the price has gone up slightly it's still a very good deal for a 100% merino. The colours I used are listed as 'sky blue' and 'heather'.
Thursday, December 08, 2005
Fatigue, Fun and Fabulous breakfasts
Fatigue
I made it into work today (skip down to 'Fun' if you aren't interested in non-knitting, general medical content). It took me six hours to do what should be, at worst, a two hour job. I thought meeting up with Glittr and Flossie for lunch would help, it was great to see them but when I made it back to the office I felt terrible. Kenny picked me up and I came home and slept for three hours. Proper, full on sleep with dreams, not dosing on the settee sleep.
Along with being currently obsessed with light* I am also very interested in issues of sleep and fatigue at the moment. There are those who believe that Fibromyalgia and ME / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) are essentially the same thing since many of the symptoms are common to each and since there isn't really a medical test for either of them. Then there are others, like the twonk I saw last week at the hospital, who believe that CFS/ME/Fibro all basically = depression. See Bella's reply to this kind of nonsense . His considered opinion (which was obviously really relevant seeing as he was an anaesthetist - don't even ask how I ended up being referred to this twonk) was that a psychiatrist was the best person to cure all these ills since they are obviously physical manifestations of mental pain. Now I don't sit here denying that I've suffered a bit of the old mental pain over the years, I'm not ashamed of it, it's a plain ole fact. But by saying this he goes against all the current specialist thinking on Fibro and CFS/ME. And I'm pissed off about it.
A lot of the scepticism surrounding CFS/ME and Fibro is based on the 'scientific method', specifically diagnostic testing. Testing has huge importance in our western medical system. Since there isn't a test for these syndromes they don't exist. Can you see the problem here?! It's a sad fact that Multiple Sclerosis was also not accepted as 'real' for years and then once a neurological test was found for it, its existence was widely accepted. Not surprisingly many sufferers of CFS/ME/Fibro spend many years being tested for everything under the sun in the name of finding out what it is they have. When the tests all come back negative and the symptoms correspond roughly with CFS/ME/Fibro then that's what gets written on your file. "We can't cure it. Why not have some more heavy duty anti-depressants while you're here though, just in case it's all in your head and that'll sort it out."
You get the CFS/ME label if your problems are mainly related to exhaustion. You get the Fibro label if your problems are mainly related to pain. I happened to get the Fibro label but I think I could just as easily have got the CFS/ME if my doctors had been so inclined.
Fun
It's not all pain and fatigue in Purlpower's life though. Heavens above no. There are also Friends and Yarn. And sometimes a wonderful combination of the two such as visiting Glittr's house and getting her to wind my wool for me:
She has a dinky little swift that screws onto a table top, much easier than the larger versions I have seen on most American blogs which look like they are big enough to need their own passport. Glittr's swift and ball winder made short work on my lovely Manos which Uncle Bozo brought back from NY last year.
Grebo (the second handsomest cat in the North East) kept an eye on the proceedings:
However, we had no joy trying to wind up the cashmere laceweight though. No joy at all. The skein was just too thick for the swift. This baby is going to have to be tacked by hand. Man is that going to be an enjoyable couple of hours.
Fabulous breakfasts
Glittr offers the best breakfast in town:
See the knittyboards for a further disucssion of the joy of marmite.
*Dear sweet Jane has forgotten how dark the UK is at this time of year. For those of you who don't know her, Jane was one of my best friends throughout school (I think partly because she was one of the only other people I knew who read 'proper books', for fun). She now lives in Australia where trousers are called 'pants', you get vegemite (pah!) instead of marmite and it doesn't ever get dark at 3.30 in the afternoon. Ever. Yup Jane it is pretty dark here in Blighty especially right now, the shortest day is around 21st Dec where it won't get light until about 8.30am (by which time I should be at my desk) and it will be dark again at 3.30pm. After that it will start to gradually get better. I'm pinning a hell of a lot of hope on 21st Dec.
I made it into work today (skip down to 'Fun' if you aren't interested in non-knitting, general medical content). It took me six hours to do what should be, at worst, a two hour job. I thought meeting up with Glittr and Flossie for lunch would help, it was great to see them but when I made it back to the office I felt terrible. Kenny picked me up and I came home and slept for three hours. Proper, full on sleep with dreams, not dosing on the settee sleep.
Along with being currently obsessed with light* I am also very interested in issues of sleep and fatigue at the moment. There are those who believe that Fibromyalgia and ME / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) are essentially the same thing since many of the symptoms are common to each and since there isn't really a medical test for either of them. Then there are others, like the twonk I saw last week at the hospital, who believe that CFS/ME/Fibro all basically = depression. See Bella's reply to this kind of nonsense . His considered opinion (which was obviously really relevant seeing as he was an anaesthetist - don't even ask how I ended up being referred to this twonk) was that a psychiatrist was the best person to cure all these ills since they are obviously physical manifestations of mental pain. Now I don't sit here denying that I've suffered a bit of the old mental pain over the years, I'm not ashamed of it, it's a plain ole fact. But by saying this he goes against all the current specialist thinking on Fibro and CFS/ME. And I'm pissed off about it.
A lot of the scepticism surrounding CFS/ME and Fibro is based on the 'scientific method', specifically diagnostic testing. Testing has huge importance in our western medical system. Since there isn't a test for these syndromes they don't exist. Can you see the problem here?! It's a sad fact that Multiple Sclerosis was also not accepted as 'real' for years and then once a neurological test was found for it, its existence was widely accepted. Not surprisingly many sufferers of CFS/ME/Fibro spend many years being tested for everything under the sun in the name of finding out what it is they have. When the tests all come back negative and the symptoms correspond roughly with CFS/ME/Fibro then that's what gets written on your file. "We can't cure it. Why not have some more heavy duty anti-depressants while you're here though, just in case it's all in your head and that'll sort it out."
You get the CFS/ME label if your problems are mainly related to exhaustion. You get the Fibro label if your problems are mainly related to pain. I happened to get the Fibro label but I think I could just as easily have got the CFS/ME if my doctors had been so inclined.
Fun
It's not all pain and fatigue in Purlpower's life though. Heavens above no. There are also Friends and Yarn. And sometimes a wonderful combination of the two such as visiting Glittr's house and getting her to wind my wool for me:
She has a dinky little swift that screws onto a table top, much easier than the larger versions I have seen on most American blogs which look like they are big enough to need their own passport. Glittr's swift and ball winder made short work on my lovely Manos which Uncle Bozo brought back from NY last year.
Grebo (the second handsomest cat in the North East) kept an eye on the proceedings:
However, we had no joy trying to wind up the cashmere laceweight though. No joy at all. The skein was just too thick for the swift. This baby is going to have to be tacked by hand. Man is that going to be an enjoyable couple of hours.
Fabulous breakfasts
Glittr offers the best breakfast in town:
See the knittyboards for a further disucssion of the joy of marmite.
*Dear sweet Jane has forgotten how dark the UK is at this time of year. For those of you who don't know her, Jane was one of my best friends throughout school (I think partly because she was one of the only other people I knew who read 'proper books', for fun). She now lives in Australia where trousers are called 'pants', you get vegemite (pah!) instead of marmite and it doesn't ever get dark at 3.30 in the afternoon. Ever. Yup Jane it is pretty dark here in Blighty especially right now, the shortest day is around 21st Dec where it won't get light until about 8.30am (by which time I should be at my desk) and it will be dark again at 3.30pm. After that it will start to gradually get better. I'm pinning a hell of a lot of hope on 21st Dec.
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
The first of many hats
While the sock knitting continues in a slow and steady way there has also been some knitting of the 'fast and loose' variety. Here's young Fillipa in her hat:
I figured I owed Fillipa a hat because it is because of her that I have had the opportunity to get 'kitty smitten' (in Glittr's words) with young master Patch.
And the natural light shot, which always seems like such a good idea until you remember that there is no natural light. And yes, I am aware that this obsession with light needs attention.
Thanks to those readers who recommended Colin's blog to me because he has recently bought a SAD light. They sound brilliant, but it is going to take me a while to save up for one. Incidentally, it was very nice to see Colin's cashmere jumpers, reminded me how little you see men's jumpers on knitting blogs. I have long promised to kinit Kenny a red and black stripey mohair number but it is still in the planning stages. Later this week: more hats.
Here comes the nerdy bit:
Yarn: Rowan All Season's Cotton
Needles: 4.5mm bamboo
Pattern: Baby beanie from Erika Knight 'Simple knits for cherished babies'
Finished: Late November 2005
I figured I owed Fillipa a hat because it is because of her that I have had the opportunity to get 'kitty smitten' (in Glittr's words) with young master Patch.
And the natural light shot, which always seems like such a good idea until you remember that there is no natural light. And yes, I am aware that this obsession with light needs attention.
Thanks to those readers who recommended Colin's blog to me because he has recently bought a SAD light. They sound brilliant, but it is going to take me a while to save up for one. Incidentally, it was very nice to see Colin's cashmere jumpers, reminded me how little you see men's jumpers on knitting blogs. I have long promised to kinit Kenny a red and black stripey mohair number but it is still in the planning stages. Later this week: more hats.
Here comes the nerdy bit:
Yarn: Rowan All Season's Cotton
Needles: 4.5mm bamboo
Pattern: Baby beanie from Erika Knight 'Simple knits for cherished babies'
Finished: Late November 2005
Sunday, December 04, 2005
S.A.D - S.O.S.
It doesn't seem to have been light here for weeks. I think my mind is playing tricks on me. Have any of you tried those light boxes to help with depression during the winter months? They seem pretty expensive so I don't want to fork out on yet another 'miracle therapy' that doesn't deliver, but on the other hand, if it worked, it would be money well spent.
Barely functioning work wise at the moment - it all seems Far Too Hard and the work is steadily piling up with each non-productive day that passes. Sock knitting however is well within my current settee-bound capabilities and I have started the second of mum's socks, it's a fantastic pattern, my favourite socks so far.
Just counting down the days until we piss off to Spain for a Spanish festive period with our mates up the mountains. We leave on Dec 15th so not long to go now.
If I was a horse, I'd be glue by now. Ta ta.
Barely functioning work wise at the moment - it all seems Far Too Hard and the work is steadily piling up with each non-productive day that passes. Sock knitting however is well within my current settee-bound capabilities and I have started the second of mum's socks, it's a fantastic pattern, my favourite socks so far.
Just counting down the days until we piss off to Spain for a Spanish festive period with our mates up the mountains. We leave on Dec 15th so not long to go now.
If I was a horse, I'd be glue by now. Ta ta.
Thursday, December 01, 2005
Unfinished business
There is much knitting of an unfinished variety currently clogging up Purltowers.
Busy on the needles at the mo with mum's Christmas socks. I am not ruining a surprise here as she never reads my blog. (BTW Auntie Jane you are under strict instructions NOT to mention these socks to mum!) They are in the Lorna's Laces that I bought on the Get Knitted trip and I am loving this Magknits pattern. There's a Knitalong currently happening if you fancy joining in the Grumperina enabled fun.
Also I began knitting with this gorgeous alpaca that Uncle Bozo brought me over from Purlsoho NY several weeks ago. I then lost the glove pattern in the Forth pub on a squiffy knitty night. Glittr found the pattern in the pub (hurrah) but then lost it again in her house (boo). So the gloves have been completed in cuff only and sit around the flat reminding me that they were meant to be done in time for first snows. Oh well, too busy with socks to knit for myself anyway.
Don't you just love my retro Aero needle set from charity shop?
In readers comments Mary Lou asks the pertinent question of the dimensions for Caroline's scarf. They are as follows:
Width: 16.5cm
Length: (without fringe) 255cm
Fringe: (at both ends) 14cm
As noted, the scarf did turn out to be much longer than it really needs to be so the whole cast on 620 stitches thing could definitely be negotiated. Thanks Mary Lou for reminding me that I should have done this in the previous post.
Busy on the needles at the mo with mum's Christmas socks. I am not ruining a surprise here as she never reads my blog. (BTW Auntie Jane you are under strict instructions NOT to mention these socks to mum!) They are in the Lorna's Laces that I bought on the Get Knitted trip and I am loving this Magknits pattern. There's a Knitalong currently happening if you fancy joining in the Grumperina enabled fun.
Also I began knitting with this gorgeous alpaca that Uncle Bozo brought me over from Purlsoho NY several weeks ago. I then lost the glove pattern in the Forth pub on a squiffy knitty night. Glittr found the pattern in the pub (hurrah) but then lost it again in her house (boo). So the gloves have been completed in cuff only and sit around the flat reminding me that they were meant to be done in time for first snows. Oh well, too busy with socks to knit for myself anyway.
Don't you just love my retro Aero needle set from charity shop?
In readers comments Mary Lou asks the pertinent question of the dimensions for Caroline's scarf. They are as follows:
Width: 16.5cm
Length: (without fringe) 255cm
Fringe: (at both ends) 14cm
As noted, the scarf did turn out to be much longer than it really needs to be so the whole cast on 620 stitches thing could definitely be negotiated. Thanks Mary Lou for reminding me that I should have done this in the previous post.
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