Vinopolis

A great trip to Vinopolis on Friday, I went with some very good friends as part of my ongoing 60th Birthday celebrations! Vinopolis is just behind Borough Market, which is now very colourful and full of delicious food goodies, lots of cheese, meat, fish, veg etc lots of organics and cooked food which smelt so appetising in the cold. Vinopolis is built under the huge brick arches of the station and is very attractive, as you would guess from the name it's all about wine, there are wines from all over the world, a short talk on how to taste wine and then lots of wines to taste! It's a very attractive setting you can stroll around at leisure to the different tasting tables, very relaxed, lots of places to sit and sip, and water coolers to refresh the taste buds. Afterwards we had a meal at an Italian Restaurant in Villiers Street, adjacent to Charing Cross Station, and of course managed a little more wine with dinner!

Daughters Pullover in Emu Shetland Boucle

My daughter found some of this yarn in a charity shop and asked me to knit her a warm loose jumper, we looked at the patterns on www.garnstudio.com and found a jumper she liked, this is it with added stripes as we had two shades of yarn, coffee and cream. I find the garnstudio site really useful, patterns can be searched by type but also by stitch tension, and they cover a generous range of sizes. I don't know how old the Emu yarn is but it's certainly very warm, it was keeping me cosy whilst I knitted with it.

Noro Silk Garden Reknitted

I have finished reknitting the Noro silk garden that I made as a cardigan earlier this year, I was never happy with the effect of the colour spread so before Christmas I gave it the kermit treatment and have now reknitted it as a jumper, I much prefer it as a jumper and I personally like the effect of using four balls of yarn to create panels of colour. The sleeves were knitted with three balls of yarn. Photos are of the cardigan before and front and back of the new jumper.

Tiny Teddy and Grandaughter's Bag

Another teddy from Sandra Polley's book, complete with coat in patons chenille and a teeny weeny curly wurly, from one strand of machine knitting yarn. Have also made a bag to mount grandaughter's woven square on, I have found several bag making books on the Kent Libraries catalogue, and it's now possible to reserve them on line, which makes things very easy, in fact it's too easy to spend ages on line browsing the library catalogue.

Yummy Yarn, Bags and Beads

Where does the time go to? What have I been doing, well knitting, cooking and decorating amongst other things. The beaded knitting class with Julie Makin was excellent, held at C & H Fabrics at Canterbury, a full day we did various samples in the morning with Julie showing us how to thread beads, cast on with beads, knit with beads, etc, with lots of tips to avoid the worst problems. After lunch we had a choice of jaeger yarn and bead packs to start on our own design. I have not got very far with mine yet, I did not want to follow a pattern but to experiment with the different pattern and stitch placements, so this is it so far.

I have used all my sock yarn so it was essential to buy more and I found some gorgeous yarn on ebay. Opal hand painted in teal, pink and claret, very soft and some of my favourite colours, just asking to be made into a great pair of socks.

C'est Moi

I've been tagged by Mary-Lou, so.....................

What is your all time favourite yarn to knit with?

Well that's a bit like saying which bottle of wine do you prefer? it's much easier to think of the wines I would not drink, and similarly the yarns I do not want to knit with, yarns with horrible texture, vile colour, poor quality, yarns that break and yarns with knots, yarns that smell and yarns that scratch.

I enjoy knitting with a good quality, well spun pure wool in about a four ply or double knitting, usually Jaeger, or hand spun, and in a colour I adore, and even better if I am knitting an interesting new pattern, and knitting it for someone I am very fond of!

Your favourite needles?

Usually Addi Circs, smooth, fast, weight held on lap, easy to tuck in for travelling knitting. Sometimes old metal beehive or aero and four needles for socks, (sorry Alex) and occasionally bamboo, BUT NOT PLASTIC, they make my hands sticky, stitches stick and I really get grumpy.

The Worst Thing You've Ever Knitted?

A zipped jacket that I made for my daughter, looked great, fitted well, and shed fibres over everything. I have sometimes thrown or given away yarn I absolutley detested knitting with, once I even burnt it with great glee!

Your most favourite knit pattern?

Bottle Cover for the Wine, and matching coasters for the glasses :-)

Most Valuable Knitting Technique

Knitting two colour fairisle with both colours held in the right hand and "picking" the colour needed with the index finger. Don't knit complex patterns after two glasses of wine.

Best Knit Book or Magazine

Books for me every time, they can go into much more depth than magazine articles, so my favs are Elizabeth Zimmerman, Mary Thomas, Maggie Rigetti, Montse Stanley, Gladys Thompson, Jean Frost, Sally Melville

Favourite Knit-Along

None, not my thing unless you consider the cw blog a K-A.

Favourite Knitwear Designer

Elizabeth Zimmerman

The Knit Item You Wear the Most

At present it's my clapotis, pic on my blog, because its soft, light and warm.

Which Lucky Knitter Gets this Next?

Spinning Sue
Nickerjac
The Wool Palace

First Curly Wurly Completed

This is knitted from one 25 grm ball of kidsilk haze, very soft, light and fluffy, I knitted this with addis but perhaps not the best choice as both the needles and the yarn are very slippery. I think I have caught the CW bug! as I am deciding which yarn to use for the next one! More pics are on the Curly Wurly blog.