Doing The Continental: Why I've Changed The Way I Knit

Unsurprisingly, there is more than one way to knit.  All you are really after is pulling a loop of yarn through another loop that's on a needle, after all.  Everyone holds their needles and yarn differently and so everyone knits in their own way, but you can divide it broadly in to two camps: those who hold their yarn in their right hand and those who hold it in their left hand.

My Mum taught me to knit in the same way as her, with the yarn in our right hands.  This is known as the English or throwing method, but for me I've always found this slow.  I have very small fingers and so when I make a stitch I have to take my right hand off the needle, wrap the yarn and then put my hand back in place to finish off the stitch.  Don't get me wrong, when I got going I could knit at quite a speed, but the hand movements made everything seem laborious and actually took up a lot of room.  I frequently elbowed people when I knitted on buses or trains, and I always felt that there was probably an easier way.

I have some friends here in Pisa who knit with the yarn in their left hand, or the Continental or picking method.  Here's a handy YouTube video to show the 2 different methods: http://youtu.be/_Iu_6gxt7t0

I had given it a try once or twice before but invariably gave up because I couldn't keep the yarn in my hand properly or I got thumb cramp.  One of the reasons I decided I would at least learn to crochet is because the technique involves holding the yarn in your left hand under a bit of tension, and so if I could manage that then perhaps I could manage to do it and hold a pair of needles at the same time.  I needed to find the right project though - something that would take more than a few hours, but not months, and something with a variety of stitches in so I could get the hang of all of them.  The Ishbel shawl I made last month was an ideal project, plus the fact that I was knitting it in such a nice yarn (Malabrigo sock) that it was never going to be a completely unpleasant experience.

I have to say that it took me a little while to get going knitting with the yarn in my other hand, but now there is no stopping me!  A few projects later and I'm not switching back to the English way!  Knitting stockinette is so much faster and ribbing has been so much easier because I don't have to drop one needle to move the wool from back to front and vice versa: just a little flick of the left index finger and the yarn is all ready and in the correct position.  Plus no more elbowing people.  I can happily knit in plane, trains and buses now without needing any extra elbow room!

So here I am, in praise of The Continental :)

More FOs

Just a quick post with some photos of a couple of recent FOs.

First of all, an Ishbel Shawl from Ysolda Teague which I meant to send to my Gran before I left London, but sort-of forgot... oops.  Here it is blocking in the sun:

It was knitted with a lovely skein of Malabrigo sock yarn and is so soft and smooshy.  It was my first project knitting continental style (with the yarn in my left hand).  I'm really pleased and it went quite well. Once again though, the watchword was 'LIFELINES'!

And second of all here's a gorgeous glove and neck-warmer set I made for my sister's birthday.  The pattern is called Cafe au Lait mitts (which is free on Ravelry) and I used the stitch pattern to make the neck-warmer.  This used up the skein of yarn almost perfectly.  It was another one of Flamboyance Yarns' beautifully hand-dyed skeins, this time a DK yarn called Rufford.  It knit up really beautifully and was very happy with the results.

Knit Nation

Last weekend saw the giant bus of fun that is Knit Nation roll back into London once again.  It was a three-day knitting spectacular with classes, a marketplace and a great night of bingo on the Saturday.  I really did have an excellent time.

Let's deal with the sensible stuff first: my class.  It was Knitting With Colour by Susanna Hansson which took place all day on Saturday.  It was £100 and I really had to think a lot before I booked, but I got so much out of it that I'm really pleased I treated myself (there was a lot of treating myself last weekend).

The topics covered in class were intarsia, fair isle knitting, and slip-stitch knitting.  Intarsia was first and it was my least favourite to be honest.  I'm sure one day I will make myself or my Dad an argyle sweater or something and be grateful for the notes and resources Susanna provided.  But I'm not going to hurry that day forward to be totally honest.  Here's my intarsia swatch.  The two yarns were slightly different thicknesses which is part of the reason why it doesn't look great, but the main reason was that I found it very difficult to lock the stitches together at just the right tension when changing colour.

Next was fair isle.  This was definitely my favourite part of the session and the skill I really wanted to learn.  I would love to be able to knit a hat or some fair isle detailing on a jumper because it's one of the iconic knitting styles.  Pre-Susanna, I was too petrified to even have a go.  As you can see from my swatch I started fairly badly, but by the end it was looking quite good.  I have to point out that by the end, I was also on the wine and playing bingo which is why the pattern slipped a bit... Oops.

You can see that at the bottom the floats between the blue and beige stitches are too tight.  Susanna had a great trick to get round this: turn the work inside out.  This means the floats are carried around the outside of the work and so when you turn it the right way out they're a little looser and don't pull the fabric.  Brilliant!

Finally we worked on slip stitch knitting which is quite similar to the brioche work I did on some mitts earlier this year, but it was also really interesting to work with colour.  Susanna pointed out that this is a great way to use variegated yarns in combination with a (semi-)solid or even another variegated skein.  This swatch I did the same slip stitch pattern, but I just changed which colour was the dominant one after the first repeat of the pattern (yes I did have to choose the bright pink skein... duh).  As you can see, with the first repeat, the variegated yarn is the dominant colour and then you just get these sudden flashes of pink.  The second time round, you have the pink as the dominant colour but these great multi-colour flecks from the slipped stitches with the other yarn.  Fabulous!

The class really gave me some ideas of things I'd like to do.  I really enjoyed the colour aspect of the slip-stitch knitting and I'd love to combine that with some of the stitches in my brioche book.  Plus I picked up a really lovely fair isle pattern from P-Hop (incidentally a great charity you should all check out) for a hat that I might think about having a go at when I've diminished the stash slightly...

That's the other thing that I treated myself to last week.  A lot of stash.  Oops.  Well I say stash... I know what I want to make with all of them.  I think.  And I've already started one project.  Let's take you through some photos of (some of) the things I bought.

I've seen this yarn before, but I finally got to have a feel and absolutely loved it, especially in this purple colour.  My Knit Picks City Tweed has already been put to good use to make a Saville Row Cardigan.  I'm sure there'll be more on that in another post.  I'm working the sleeves at the moment.

I also picked up my pattern, yarn and project bag for the gorgeous collaboration London In Stitches by The Bothered Owl, The Knitting Goddess and One Hand Knits.  The South Kensington Shawl design will be a suitable memorial of my trip to London this summer as I seem to have spent far too much time trooping from South Ken tube station up Exhibition Road to something-or-other!  I also picked up some of the Bothered Owl stitch markers with a cake theme.  Every girl needs a battenburg cake stitch marker, right?

I also picked up a couple of gorgeous skeins from Sweet Clement which I am going to use to make a lovely shrug I've had my eye on for a little while.  I just love this colour!

Some other things that I haven't photographed were a couple of books (which I really needed), some cute shell buttons and a skein of Manos del Uruguay which I have plans for.  Plus I sort of bounced on Julie Tilly Flop and bought some of her cards, a tea towel and a print for my wall....

Finally, the great thing about the weekend was meeting up with loads of fabulous knitters.  There are so many people I know only via stalking them on Twitter, Ravelry or their podcasts so it was really wonderful to put even more names to faces :)

Stitched Science - The Big Event

I had such a wonderful time at Stitched Science last weekend at the Science Museum in London.  For some reason, I volunteered to help everyone set-up and get ready, plus pack away.  It took me until Wednesday to recover!  But it was all worth it for an absolutely fabulous two days last weekend when the visitors were in the museum!

It was slightly surreal to see my work which I mostly just giggled at in proper showcases in a proper museum.  As well as the Bunsen I blogged about previously, I also managed to knock together a telescope + accompanying dome.  And when I say knock together I really mean knock together.  I think the thing was basically help up more by pipecleaners, cardboard and my enthusiasm than anything else.

I would not recommend taking any data on this!

I want to say thank you to Lauren and Natali at Stitch London for letting me be part of their wonderful event, plus all the lovely knitters I know via Twitter and/or Ravelry who I met face-to-face for the first time, often with their kids in tow too.

I did take some photos of the event, but to be honest, the best pictures are over on the Stitch London blog and their Stitch Up.  Definitely check out the photos of the individual pieces that people sent in and are posted on the Stitch Up feed.  Some of them really are works of art, especially Jenny at World of Woolcraft's pieces which were so creative and a real fusion of art and science!

I really did have so much fun and I really hope I get to do an event like this again soon, combining the two things I love the most - science and knitting!  Hurrah!

World Wide Knit In Public Day 2011

Knittable had a wonderful day yesterday starting at Francesca's Bottega della Lana in Viareggio.  The new shop looks fabulous and we all enjoyed knitting while drinking prosecco!  Grazie mille a tutti!

Viareggio

Knitters at large

We started off knitting outside, but the day was so windy, especially since Viareggio is on the coast and gets the sea breeze too, that we ended up on some tables inside the shop with the doors open.  Everyone was working on their own projects and having a good nose about some of the wonderful yarn.  I really had to be a very good girl and not buy anything, especially with Knit Nation coming up!

I had my own project to work on - a little yarnstorm at the Leaning Tower based on Whodunnknit's Flutterguy pattern which was created for Stitch London's Stitch Crawl last weekend.  It's a fabulously easy pattern and a great excuse to break out the colourful acrylic and use up some of the pipecleaners I have left over from another project (more on that in another blog post).  I hatched up 3 little guys to set free in the afternoon when the location shifted back to Pisa and we took up position between the cathedral and the Leaning Tower.

Three flutterguys getting set to brave the journey back to Pisa

Get out of my prosecco!

So here we have the final 3 flutterguys making a bid for freedom in the strong breeze.  Nestled at the foot of the Tower I hope they amused a few of the tourists.

It was so breezy we kept losing the googly eyes!  Poor pink and blue flutterguys ended up blind!

Stitched Science

I would like to draw attention to something that Stitch London are up to in conjunction with the Science Museum in London for an event in June.  Basically they are combining stitching and science into one weekend of awesomeness.  I am desperate to be there!!  They are looking for volunteers to stitch anything inspired by science.  I thought I'd share my first contribution since I was lucky enough to be in London last week to drop it off with Deadly Knitshade.

Crocheted chemistry set anyone?

Of course, I have an astronomy-related idea up my sleeve as well, but I've got a couple of things I want to finish before I start on that!  For more information on how to join in check out here!

Tropical Orchid Thief Scarf

 Time to show off another finished object.  This is my interpretation of Ysolda's Orchid Thief Shawlette pattern from Brave New Knits.  It's the first pattern of Ysolda's I've knitted, my first time working totally from a chart and it's definitely the most challenging lace pattern I've done so far.

This was such a learning experience.  I can't tell you how much I learned about knitting!  Firstly, life lines life lines life lines.  These, for the uninitiated, are when you weave a bit of plain cotton thread through your knitting at a point you're happy with.  The extra loops from yarn overs, knit 3 stitches together, slipped stitches etc make it difficult to unpick lace if you've gone wrong as I found to my cost.  Taking the time to place the life lines every 10 rows or so, or at the end of every chart repeat means that if you go wrong you can just rip back to that point and it will be easy to pick up every stitch because there'll be a little bit of cotton threaded through it.

The second thing I realised is that chart knitting is nowhere near as scary or confusing as I thought it was.  Once you've learned what all the symbols mean and got to grips with what's repeated when it's actually not as traumatising as I had got the impression it would be.  I had charts 3 and 4 as electronic copies from the errata to the pattern and it was easy to align the line I was working on with the bottom of window on the computer.  This made is very easy to follow and not get lost.  As you progress, you just scroll up the screen one line at a time.

Another thing I realised is how important it is to read the pattern and understand how the row before links to the row you're knitting.  It's very easy to go wrong by forgetting a simple yarn over or not passing a slipped stitch over another.  If you're aware that when you reach a certain point you should be seeing the effect of that on the row below it's so much quicker to fix than unpicking hundreds of stitches.

Finally, at least for now, I learned how important blocking is.  Normally I'm quite lazy about this sort of thing and I'll just run things over with a steam iron to open everything up, but this scarf really needed a proper soak and then pinning out.  I was so pleased with the effect it might even induce me to do it more often!

But enough of the waffling... Here's the finished object.  It's knitted with the Kismet yarn from  Flamboyance Yarns.  This is a 4ply 100% blue-faced Leicester wool and the colourway is called Fourth Dimension.  I absolutely fell in love with the colours when I first saw this yarn and I wanted to use it for something special, rather than just another pair of socks that no one will see.  I toyed with the idea of making a hat for a while, but that would have left a lot of yarn still to use, so I was pleased when I found the Orchid Thief Shawlette which uses almost the whole thing.  Actually there was a point with about 7 rows to go when I was worried I wasn't going to have enough, but it worked our perfectly.

I love it.  I hope you do too!

Spinning Workshop

Last weekend I went to Lucca to take part in a workshop on spinning which was run by Deborah Gray, a Scottish spinner.  I was so relieved that it was taken by someone who speaks English because otherwise I would have had no hope at keeping up with what was happening.

In the morning, we dealt with a really dirty fleece from a sheep from Abruzzo.  It started off like this:

   

It was really dirty, but I didn't bother with gloves - the lanolin in the wool is really good for your hands.  Once we'd rolled the fleece out flat (that's just 1 sheep's worth in the photos) it got divided into three different qualities based on which part of the sheep it came from.

To clean up the fibres, we used two different ways.  The first was combing.  It's very simple: you take a small bit and comb it like you've got a tangle in your hair.  It brings out a lot of the dirt and the shorter strands that you don't want.  This is a before and after shot.  You can see that it would take ages to do a whole fleece like this!

Another method is called carding where you do more wool at a time, but it's a bit more fiddly and I didn't really get the hang of it to be honest.  It's like having 2 giant hairbrushes and by barely rubbing one against the other you somehow get a nice roll of clean wool ready to spin.  I kept applying too much pressure and the wool kept getting stuck in the carders.  Not that I let that get me down!

Then finally before lunch we had a look at silk and how you get that from pupae to yarn.  I really couldn't believe how strong that stuff is.  You open up the cocoons and soften them in water and then you can spread them out and draw the fibres out.  The individual strands are so long and so tough, it was really hard work.  I'm glad we didn't do any spinning with those; it would have been incredibly difficult!

After lunch we moved on to the spinning part.  We were learning with bottom-whorl spindles which look like this:

(I really don't know why I decided to wear a skirt)

As you can see, there is a round fat bit at the bottom and this leads up to a loop near the top of the spindle.  It's from here that you draw out the wool to spin it.  You can see me having a go with some of the wool that I'd cleaned that morning.  There wasn't very much so I quickly had to resort to the (clean) things Deborah had brought with her

You can see there my first ball of hand-spun yarn.  It was totally uneven and utterly useless for anything, but I felt a great sense of pride!  I also spun some darker shetland wool

And finally I got to ply the two strands together!  Here is my very first skein of wool!

It's only about 2m long, but I am so proud!  I haven't had the chance to give it a final wash yet, but I'll try and do that this weekend in case it starts to smell!  Hurrah!

I had such a fun day.  I want to thank Deborah and also Donna who organised it.  I definitely want to keep practising with spinning, although not necessarily starting from the fleece straight off the sheep's back.  I might leave that bit to someone else or a machine!  It was fabulous to learn the process that people have been doing for hundreds of years and really made me appreciate the work of people who do do this all by hand.  Amazing!

April Fools' Yarnstorm

Friday marked my first ever yarnstorm!  I was so pleased with it.  I made three little owls based on this pattern.  I couldn't resist adding some googly eyes!  The statue I yarnstormed was that of Ulisse Dini, a mathematician who studied and taught at my place of work.  I really like this statue because it looks like it's been made for people to go up and have their photos taken with it!

On Friday he was briefly joined by some new friends

 

 

The blue and purple birds had made their bids for freedom by lunchtime, but we noticed the red one starring in some photos in the afternoon.  It too had flown away by the end of the day.

Socks!

Socks seem to be a very devisive thing in the knitting world.  Some love them, some hate them. Others have turned their design into an art form.  You only have to do a quick search on Google to find pattern after pattern.  There's even a basic sock pattern on the BBC website (thanks Auntie - glad the licence fee is being used for good).  Now once you've done this search, click on the images tab and you can see some beautiful examples of socks and coloured sock yarn used together to make really amazing things. 

Personally I think I'm developing a bit of a love/hate relationship with socks.  I love the yarn, I love the patterns and I feel such a sense of achievement when they're done.  But at the same time, the yarn is really fine, the needles are tiny and I feel like it takes me forever to make something that essentially nobody will see.

I am in no way a veteran sock knitter.  I think I've made about 4 adult pairs in all, and they all differ slightly, but I own more books on knitting socks than I do for any other type of knitting.  Perhaps because there are so many different ways of making socks?  Toe-up, top-down, two-at-a-time, different heels, different toes and that's before you've even decided what sort of pattern to do on the main body of the sock itself.

I've just finished a pair of socks which I worked top-down.  This means I started with open end on the legs, rather than a closed toe.  I also worked 2 at a time on 1 long circular needle.  This can be a bit of a faff keeping everything untangled and carrying your 2 balls of yarn round in a freezer bag, but at least you do everything together and you don't end up suffering from second-sock syndrome!  I decided that I would try a slightly different short-row heel this time, which meant the heels had to be done one after the other, but I am really pleased with the way they turned out.  There are no holes, no wrapped stitches which drive me crazy and they fit round my ankle perfectly.

Here are my Sciencing Socks!  I went from:

Winding the yarn

Dividing it into two equal balls

to the finished items

`

They are so named because the yarn is in a colourway called "Supernova" from Flamboyance Yarns.  Do you see what I mean about the yarn?  Where else could I get away with wearing such a fabulous combination of purple and orange?!  The yarn is called Hero and is 100% British Falkland Merino.  I'm wearing the finished socks now. They are so soft and comfy.  I picked the various elements from my Socks à la Carte book.  There is just a simple ribbed cuff, a spiral galaxy (more astronomy) pattern on the leg, and a star (just to labour the point) toe.

I made my father a pair of socks for Christmas, and I said after finishing those that I'd never make another pair of socks.  I'm feeling pretty similar now.  But I know that I've got some multicoloured yarn stashed away and the second volume of Socks à la Carte just itching to be used.  It would certainly be nice to work with some bigger needles for a while, but I know that eventually I'll come back to the socks!

Idle Hands Are The Devil's Tool

Greetings!  For one day and one day only, this blog has been taken over.  Yes, this is not being written by Emma, but in fact the pink scarf she is wearing.  This post is brought to you from the thrilling departure lounge at Heathrow T5.  For you T5 aficionados, I am now huddled around Emma's neck outside the BA lounge in a draft, killing time as we wait for our flight back to Pisa. It was a mistake of them to let her in there last week because she learnt the password for their free wifi and now she's having a jolly time catching up on everything she missed overnight.

I would like to say that I am the most productive thing Emma has done this week, but that's probably not true.  She has been at a supernova meeting at Caltech in LA.  She was hoping for sun, the opportunity to start on her tan and a week partying in Hollywood.  Instead all she got was torrential rain, the beginnings of a cold and seeing someone who may or may not have been Mercedes from Glee.  Luckily for her, I have been here to keep her warm and cosy on the way home.

You see, I was Emma's conference project.  She likes to have something to do with her hands during the talks as it stops her biting her nails or just wasting hours on the internet not really listening to what's going on.  This is the same reason she likes to listen to audiobooks while she knits.  If she has something to do with her hands, her mind wanders less and she focusses on the sounds around her.  And if someone happens to refer to a graph or something on the screen then it's easy enough to look up, take note and pick up where she left off. This week, she assures me, has been very interesting and productive and not just on the crochet front.  Apparently there was some "pretty excellent sciencing" (her words, not mine) and she ate a lot of Mexican food.

Yes, I am Emma's second crochet project, also known as the Calm Cowl on Ravelry (sorry you have to be a member to see that link).  After a slightly dodgy start when I was totally frogged a couple of weeks ago, Emma has made rapid progress.  Although to be honest, if she can't manage to do single crochet stitches over and over in a circle then I'm not sure what business she has saying that she's taught herself a new skill.  The yarn is a 50% wool 50% acrylic mix called Tweed from Campolmi in Florence.  It's soft and squishy and really nice to work with.  The flecks of bright colour make me look really pretty and stops Emma from looking like she's wearing a blamanche round her neck.

So the moral of this story? Knit or crochet all the time at conferences, because then, even if you begin to wonder what you're doing there, at least you'll have made something nice at the end of it :)

This may or may not have been a product of exhaustion, jetlag and boredom.  And DeadlyKnitshade.  I can only apologise and say that it won't happen again.

Try, Try, Try Again or How Perfect Is Perfect?

A spate of startitis and perfection has hit.  I really try not to have more than 1 or 2 things going at the same time, but recently I seem to have been struck down with the need to start EVERYTHING!  Unfortunately, this has also been accompanied by the need for everything to be absolutely perfect.

I must confess that I'm a selfish knitter and at least 50% of all the things I make are for me.  Why must they be absolutely just so?  They're just accessories for me; why should I care?  Why must gifts be absolutely perfect?  Well because they're gifts, obviously, and I want to make them nice for people.  It doesn't matter that a little mistake here or a slight glitch there gives it a hand-crafted quality that no shop-bought item could ever replicate: if it doesn't look exactly like the example in the pattern then I'm not happy.

For example, I'm making a pair of simple lace socks at the moment.  I have done something absolutely stupid to one repeat on one half of one of the socks (I'm knitting 2 at a time) and I cannot for the life of me work out why the pattern isn't working properly.  It's just a repeat 8 stitches!  Even I can count that high without getting distracted by something else (oooh sparkly yarn!).  I know that if I don't fix this it will mean I will never wear the socks once they're done.  I've already frogged them both once and I really don't want to start again, but I'm going to have to do something drastic to fix what's gone wrong.

I've also completely frogged the crochet cowl I was making because I didn't like the way it was joining in the round.  A quick cry for help on the crochet forum on Ravelry and I know what I'm doing now.  But instead of just carrying on the new way or knowing better for next time and hiding the slightly weird joins under my hair when it's done, I've ripped the whole thing out to start again.  Guess I know what I'm taking to my conference next week to keep my hands busy during all the talks!

Am I alone in this?  Are there knitters and crocheters out there that look on their finished objects which aren't 100% like the picture in the book with pride?  Is this something I can find in my local yarn store?  If so, please let me know where I can get some as I would really like to wear some of these cold-weather items before spring truly arrives for good!

Success!

I have finished my first crochet project!  Well... I've finished the crochet part.  It's the "Fit To Be Tied" bag from Debbie Stoller's crochet book.  I'm actually really pleased with the way it's come out.  It's very simple - there's just one stitch to do in a rectangle, except for the two handles and the eyelets which are optional - but it's mostly very neat and tidy and there are only a couple of holes.  I just have to line it and find a nice ribbon to tie through the eyelets, but that shouldn't be to difficult (she says).

I'm quite enjoying this crocheting lark.  All those knitters who say that they can't learn to crochet should just try.  I think it'll be ok.

Firenze

I took Tuesday off work this week and went to Florence.  It's just under an hour away from Pisa on the train so it's very easy to get to and somewhere I really ought to go to more often.  I met up with some friends and we had lunch, a walk up to San Miniato and then went to the Palazzo Vecchio which was absolutely beautiful.  Here is a photo from outside San Miniato al Monte looking down towards the Duomo:

 

As you can see it was a beautiful day and the view from the top was well worth the walk straight after lunch.

But what does this have to do with knitting you might ask?  Well hidden in via Folco Portinari, just behind the Duomo is, frankly, my idea of knitting paradise.  Number 23 is home to Campolmi Roberto Filati.  It is the most amazing yarn store I have been to.  The company has been making and selling yarn for over 50 years now and really make good-quality stuff in a vast variety of fibres and weights.  I believe that they own or rent the whole 4 storey building the shop is in and it is filled with yarn.  The public can only go into the ground floor, but even that 1 floor has enough yarn to keep even the most dedicated knitter going for decades!  I have to be very restrained when I go there and usually try to ensure I'm accompanied by at least 1 other person to stop me from diving right in and coming away with more than I can carry.

At Campolmi, you can feel the samples of the different yarns, see how the self-striping (fantasia) colourways knit up and then once you're ready to buy, just give someone a list of which yarns you want and in which colours and they'll disappear upstairs and come back to you in a few minutes with it all.  And because you're buying direct from the maker it's much cheaper than anywhere else.  The range of colours is fabulous, particularly if you just want solid colours, and they're very friendly.  They are particularly good about being patient with my terrible Italian.

I have to go there was a strict list about what I am allowed to buy.  This time I wanted cotton for a crochet bag, yarn for a cowl and yarn for a shrug.  I've already made the crochet bag (more on that another day) in a bright blue to go with a dress I have for weddings.  The cowl I will make in 50% wool 50% acrylic pink tweed and the shrug in some much finer 50% merino 50% acrylic cream DK.

I was inspired by this week's Hoxton Handmade podcast to try and incoporate some non-wool fibres into my knitting.  Acrylic is cheaper and more robust than pure wool, particularly if like me you're obsessed with the 100% superfine merino that's so lovely to knit with, but not so lovely on the bank balance if you're making anything bigger than a scarf.  The shrug I'm going to make will (hopefully) look like it's worth much more than the €15 I will have spent on the yarn to make it.  That's certainly a lot cheaper than the cardigan I recently made which is ever-so soft and warm, but needed 13 balls of rather expensive wool to knit up!  The less I think about the cost of that the better frankly.

So if you ever find yourselves in Florence and you're tired of the wonderful churches and museums, you've stuffed yourself full to bursting with gelato and you've had so much coffee you're bouncing off the walls, visit Campolmi Roberto Filati for a bit of a shop.  And after all, a couple of 100g balls aren't going to make that much of a dent in your luggage allowance for the flight home!

A Whole New World

I treated myself to (amongst other things) a copy of Debbie Stoller's introduction to crochet book in the hope that it would succeed where others (my mother and the Ladybird book people) have failed.  So the other day I bought my first crochet hook from our LYS and gave it a go.  The early signs have been quite promising.  Here is some of the progress so far

Here we have the book itself and my very first square.  I've just been mixing the different stitches and things so it's nothing exciting

I did a rectangle because I figured that even I have the attention span to focus on 10 stitches and make sure I start and end with 10.  That's what I've been finding a bit tricky so far

A circle. This was employed as a wine coaster on Thursday night at Knittable Pisa!

V stitch. This hasn't come out too well and I didn't do much of it, but you can sort of see some of the V-shapes in the stitches.

The thing that's worrying me a little bit is reading patterns.  I had a look at the patterns that come in the book and it's a completely different language.  I suppose I felt like that when confronted with my first knitting pattern too (a Louisa Harding hat that I still wear to this day).

I'm also slightly confused about the difference between the American and British ways of describing stitches.  When you knit, knit is knit and purl is purl regardless of where you are.  Or at least they have sensible translations like dritto and rovescio in Italian (front and back).  For crochet it seems that, once again, the waters of the Atlantic have divided 2 great nations and the terminology is totally different.  What Americans call a double crochet is totally different in English and vice versa.  It's all rather confusing, but I suppose that once you have worked out which language your pattern is in you just follow the instructions.

I've decided what my first crochet project will be.  There seems to be a very nice looking small clutch bag that you can make of basically just one stitch in 1 piece with some gaps for handles.  Then you just fold it in half and sew the sides up.  I suppose if I was feeling adventurous I could line it as well, but I think I might skip that bit!  We shall see I suppose.  I've got a bit of a knitting queue to get through first before I get to this, but meanwhile I'll keep practising and see how I go!

Off The Needle

I finished the gloves I'd been making on Friday and immediately took them for a test drive trip out.  They are the Broad Street Mittens from knitty.com.  I'm not totally overwhelmed by the result because I think the pattern was designed for someone with hands of different proportions from mine.  The design says they are for large hands, and generally I would say mine are small, but the fit around the thumb and the wrist is all over the place on me.  I think that if I made myself another pair then I'd have to do some serious modifications.  I'd definitely knit more than 6 rows after the thumb gusset decrease.  Whether it's years playing the piano or just freakish genetics, but I need a bit more room there.

I must say something about the yarn though.  It is a fabulous 4ply merino/nylon mix called Gallant from Flamboyance Yarns.  It was absolutely wonderful to knit with and so warm!  It's all hand-dyed and all the colourways Louise makes are amazing.  This one in particular caught my eye because it's called Space Dust.  It's a lovely mixture of purples, blues and pinks and looks wonderful with my purple winter coat.

Space Dust Mittens

Spreading the Word

I've developed something of a reputation.  No, not that sort of reputation.  In the past year or so I have taught a number of friends to knit and I actively try and get them to come to our weekly meetings.  Yesterday I took my latest student to buy her first wool and needles and we went and sat in a comfy bar to start everything.  I love teaching people how to knit.  They get a wonderful expression on their face each time they master a new thing.  My pupil is making a 3x3 ribbed scarf, a nice easy project to start with, but it gets you learning to cast-on, knit, purl and eventually casting off.  I also think it's a good way to start because you have to get used to reading your knitting to work out which kind of stitch you want to do next after you put it down and pick it up.  We had a very successful time yesterday and I have high hopes for her.  We also had excellent nutella crepes as a reward for our hard work.

If anyone is interested the scheme for the scarf is:

• cast on a multiple of 6 + 3 stitches
• RS: (K3, P3) to last 3 stitches, K3
• WS: (P3, K3) to last 3 stitches, P3

Easy peasy!

Obviously yesterday when we went to the yarn store I couldn't leave empty handed.  I got a couple of balls of lovely discount merino to make some brioche fingerless gloves and something to make a quick gift for a friend.  But most importantly, I bought my first crochet hook and I am determined to make something with it!  I've ordered a copy of Stitch n Bitch Crochet in the hope that it will set me in as good a stead as the knitting book did all those years ago!  I had a sneek peek at what patterns I can expect and they all look excellent, so we'll see how this goes.  Maybe I won't end up with a giant knot like I did last time!

2011 Stitch Resolutions

Inspired by a thread on the Stitch London forum on Ravelry, I've decided to make some resolutions of my own.  At least this way it'll be a guide as to what I stitch for the rest of the year.

1. Learn to crochet.  It is my perpetual shame that I have not been able to learn to do this, despite the guidence of a children's Ladybird book for crochet.  We'll see how I manage this year
2. Follow an Italian pattern instead of copping out and just using the ones online in English.  I've got a couple of patterns stashed away and a magazine I've picked up so hopefully I'll manage.  Italian patterns seem to lack the idiot-proof instructions I'm used to from ones in English
3. Learn Brioche knitting.
4. Make an Estonian lace shawl.  I've had my eye on Laminara for a while and found some beautiful yarn to make it with.  This looks like a serious knitting undertaking though, not something I will be knitting in front of the TV during the Six Nations!
5. Take better photos of the finished items because everyone else has such lovely pictures and I want to do my hard work justice

Ok that last one isn't really related to knitting, but it's something I've been meaning to do.

The Beginning

In October 2009, I moved to Pisa to start a new position at one of the universities in the city.  I didn't know anyone, and I definitely didn't speak any Italian.  Whilst I made friends during my first term here, they were mostly foreign students on exchange trips or the Erasmus programme, and we all spoke English together, as I do with my bosses.  This was great, but I wanted to meet local people and to make a good stab at trying to learn enough Italian to get by without requiring an interpreter every time I needed to go to the bank or get my hair cut.  A chance search on Ravelry, the internet giant for all knitters and crocheters (hookers?), led me to Knittable, a knit cafè here in Pisa.  One brave Thursday night in January 2010 I went along with the cardigan I was making to see what it was all about.

I cannot say how much the wonderful women I have met since then have made my life easier in Pisa.  Not only do I get a couple of hours enforced Italian practice every week, but I've made real friends who I know I can turn to when I need to.  They've given me advice about Pisa and they've been so patient with my inability to communicate with them (I did not learn the past tense in Italian until about March last year so asking me how my day had been was a complete disaster!).  They've even helped me move house.

Here some of us are on World-Wide Knit In Public day, behind the cathedral and just by the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa, enjoying the nice warm day and providing some entertainment for the tourists and locals alike.

(I am second from the right on the front row wearing the pink tshirt.  You can just about see the hat I was knitting that day for my cousin's baby :) )