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!