Hello!

Almost

Almost finished the Bloke Sweater.
The front is done now, and do you know, I might just be seeing the attraction of sweater-knitting. I got a distinct rush of adrenaline as I finished the left front and cast off the shoulder, and realised that I only had the right front to knit.
It needs seaming (shoulder seams and sleeves) and then all that remains is to pick up the stitches for the neck and do the rib. It will be an Adam-sweater, not a Gavin-sweater. Good for mooching about in, with that floppiness so beloved of older teenage boys.
I wanted to finish it tonight but it's dark grey (the colour is called Shark) and I'm not sure my eyes are up to it. Much better to do it in daylight, even January daylight will be better than evening firelight.

Almost decided what to spin next. It's a toss up between a biggish project from fleece to waistcoat (vest) the fibre for which is washed and awaiting the machinations of the drum carder.
Or maybe a little batt spinning.
Or maybe some of my new Sock Fibre. (Look out for it next week.)

Almost made up my mind about the next socks, helped in no small measure by a gift from Jane who sent me some of the square dpns she has been using (see the end of her blog post for 21st December). Not only are they beautiful, a lovely copper colour which will look perfect with the yarn I have in mind, but also they are 2mm, and I only owned one set of 2mm dpns until now, and they have a mitten on them.
So you see, this is like giving me permission to cast on, don't you think?

Almost next year. Could very well be next year if you are reading this tomorrow!

So I wish you a Good "auld year's night" and hope that 2009 brings you all you wish for.

natalie

----- and from me as well - the boy who still awaits a sweater. What use are lovely hand knitted socks when you have a cold torso and arms? - Perhaps in 2009 I will actually get a sweater if I can drag her away from her ravelrousing for long enough!!!

Gavin

.... I have offered to teach him to knit!

n

Turning the page.

There is a group on ravelry called 52 books in 52 weeks.
I am not going to join it.
I try to limit the groups I am in because I would get nothing done at all, ever, if I joined every group which looked intriguing.

But I find myself asking if a book a week is an achievable goal for anyone who is also knitting, spinning, working, loving a family and attempting to live on something other than take-out food? No-one wants to set themselves up to do something which is doomed to failure before they turn the first page.
I'm reading Plenty (see yesterday's post) at the moment. And I have my next read lined up as well because I am joining the virtual book group organised by Karen at Cornflower. The January book she has suggested is Anne Tyler's "Breathing Lessons" and I made sure it was on my letter to Father Christmas, so it's sitting here ready for me to begin when I have finished Plenty.

So I'm wondering if a book a month would be a better target. Maybe Karen's choice over at Cornflower, or possibly something else.

We are nearing the end of the year, turning the page on 2008 and looking forward to 2009.

2008 has been amazing, but hard work. Nothing wrong with hard work mind you.

2009 is an "odd" year, and I like odd years better than even years. They seem to have more

Pizzazzz! 

somehow.

I already have plenty of things pencilled in.

• Two woolly festivals.
• A wholesale order for January.
• All the Club mailing dates.

And then there is the personal knitting. I am (fingers crossed) on schedule to get the Bloke Sweater off the needles before the end of 2008...

Still not sure which bloke it will fit, but that's a minor detail.

There is one French sock complete and just the second to knit. This will become my mindless knitting, so I'm not expecting to complete it before the bells ring out on Hogmanay.

Work-knitting-wise, the mittens I have been designing with Sally are awaiting their final chart and I am looking forward to seeing the pattern grow on the needles.

So really, I can begin to think about what to make next with a clear conscience. People are whispering the L-word in my ear. We shall see.

n

Village to close.

The 1,000 year old village of Stony Bridgeford in Oxfordshire is going to close because it is no longer viable.

I'm not big on New Year resolutions, because I always end up breaking them.

January is a stupid time of year to resolve to run 5 miles a day in the dark and the wet and the slipperyness of frosty mornings, and it is just as daft to resolve to eat salad when what you really want is pie and mash and gravy and plenty of it. (The "plenty of it" bit is my downfall, sadly, so that's the bit I'm going to try to deal with.)

However I was given Plenty for Christmas and it is an excellent read. I'm up to June at the moment (it starts in March), and I am resolving to keep using my veg box and to try to ensure we use as much locally sourced food as possible. My definition of local may not be 100 miles, I'm going to be open minded - I'll still be buying tea for example and I may use supermarkets, even Tesco, but I'll be selective.

The bloke sweater is nearing completion... and it may actually fit the original intended recipient!

Now, I need your advice.
Would you wash, block and then seam (minimal seaming as it's knitted in the round), or would you seam, wash and then block?

n

Things I have discovered in December.

That using bloglines is a very clever way to get all your favourite blogs sent to you.

That they aren't actually sent to you. You have to visit bloglines and they are all sitting there waiting for you to read instead of clogging up your inbox which is where I thought they would be.
Silly me.

That even the most apparently menopausal of chickens (no eggs for almost three months) can suddenly surprise you and lay an egg a day just when you need them for Yorkshire Pudding and pancakes (not at the same time), three days before Christmas.

That seeing your name in print in a real-life-proper-magazine is very, very cool. See page 90 in the latest Yarn Forward.

That seeing your name in print in a magazine which is on sale in Tesco when you are there doing your mince-pies-and-ice-cream shopping is quite astonishing.

That resisting the temptation to open the magazine casually at page 90 as it glides through the checkout is acting like a grown-up and even though you want to do it, it's a good thing you didn't.

That starting p/hop would generate £173.13 PLUS £44.60 in Gift Aid for Medecins sans Frontieres in just a few weeks. THANK YOU !!!! (Check out the total widget in the sidebar on the right and click on donate to read more about it.)

That it isn't on the right, it's on the left. People who went to SkipNorth with me in the car when I was driving and they (poor souls) were attempting to navigate, will remember that I can't tell right from left and can only respond to "Your Side", "My Side" and (when approaching junctions, roundabouts and traffic lights) "Forward!"

That this designing a pattern lark is blooming hard work even with a collaborator as clever as Sally. The pattern is for Yarn Yard Mittens and will be all test knitted and ready to go in a couple of weeks. Don't tie me to a date though.

That trying to

1. write an article
2. launch a new yarn
3. test spin a new fibre (it will be the next Fibre Club offering)
4. dye all the (expanding) Clubs
5. offer more frequent shop updates
6. launch the sweater kits for spinners
7. finish a sweater (not quite there yet)

And do it all in the only three week month in the year - December - is really quite ridiculous and I should have known better.

I had planned to annotate this post with photos of eggs and magazines and no-longer-menopausal chickens but there just isn't time.
I am about to take the last of the parcels for 2008 to the Post Office and then I am going to buy tea bags, which is the only thing I forgot when we were at Tesco yesterday.
The shop will be open for the next ten days, I am not taking it offline. There are a few lucky people with Yarn Yard Christmas Gift Vouchers in their "stockings" and others may like to window-shop or even really-shop. Any orders will be posted if I happen to be passing the Post Office, which I know is not very business-like, but I really, really need a rest so I hope you understand.

I may blog about knitting this week.
Or spinning.
Or how to use up the three cabbages I seem to have accumulated from various veg box deliveries.

Most of all, I would like to wish all of you a peaceful Solstice or Yule or Christmas or Hannukah.

love,
n

Very Clever Knitters

Just a quick post to show you a couple of things recently finished by Yarn Yard knitters.

Sue chose some yarn at Woolfest and I dyed a solid or two to go with what she had selected.
The main body of the jumper is in mauve and variegated, the sleeves are in mauve, variegated and lime green, and the collar is in mauve and lime green. 
This is knitted in bonny, my simple sock yarn.

Isn't it fabulous?

She told me
"It was cobbled together from a pattern I saw in a Noro book, an old Vogue pattern and an M&S jumper.
I used 2 hanks of mauve, 2 of multi and 1 green. 

The back and front have a welt in garter stitch and I did several trials to get a stripey pattern that I liked using only mauve and multi.  The sleeves also had a welt of garter stitch and were done in reverse stocking stitch, one row of each of three colours.  The cowl neck was in stocking stitch, 2 rows each of mauve and green and had to be made in a funnel shape to get the right look ( I did it straight first and had to unpick the lot!)  If I was doing it again I would do the neck on four needles to avoid having a seam."

I love it.

And Harriet, who won the MSF ticket to see the Yarn Harlot in August, has been knitting these.

They are not knitted in Yarn Yard yarn, she says that they could be, but that they would come out man-size knitted in bonny and these are done in 3 ply instead.
I just had to show you them though.

They are called the Sanquhar Gloves.

There seems to be some feeling that "little-and-often" shop updates would be preferable to once a week events. Check out the comments in the post below. So many people have said that they are out in the evenings or that they are tired or even (shock) that they are knitting and not computer-ing.
If I put yarn in the shop I will post on the blog and on ravelry.
Unless significant numbers of you have major difficulties with this, it will be what I plan to do for the next wee while and we'll see how it goes.
It won't be every day, but I think it will be several times a week at varying hours of the day and evening.

n

Silly, really.

This week is going to be quite silly. I have a ridiculous amount to do and I can't really see a Shop Update materialising on Thursday, not least because I will be sitting in a school hall listening to a concert at eight o'clock in the evening.
So I will just add yarn to the shop as and when I have it. There are a couple of dozen sock yarns for this morning's offering.

I have snaffled one of these though, as Adam has requested green socks, and I don't think he means glow-in-the-dark green somehow.

It's a lovely understated soft green and while I don't think these will be knitted in time for Christmas, I am thinking that maybe they might be done as a New Year gift instead. It might even be a new family tradition if I can get myself organised.

Long time blog readers will know that ahem about a year ago I started knitting a Bloke Sweater.

Exhibit A - the first sleeve.

This was intended for Gavin, but as I knitted it became apparent that it was not going to fit, so I diverted it to Adam. Well, I dug it out of the WIP bag at the weekend and spent Saturday morning counting stitches and conducting the pattern template from The Knitter's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns in order to work out which size I was actually knitting... it was a long time ago.

The sleeves were already done and the body was knitted up to the oxters so really I was on the home straight and it is pretty silly not to have finished it before now. I'm on circs, so the body has been divided into chest and back and progress is being made towards the neck (eeek... purl rows).

This is now my TV knitting.

Speaking of which... does anyone know when "It's a Wonderful Life" is on, please?
It's Essential Christmas Viewing for me.

n

Knit your own wellies?

I promised photos yesterday and just ran out of time. So here, for your delectation are the first of the Sweater Packs of fibre.

They are in the shop.

These are offered in packs of 5 braids which is 500g. And this time they are all BFL superwash.
It's surprisingly tricky to dye identical fibres. I make my stock solutions as a very concentrated liquid and then I dilute. Using water at different temperatures to do the diluting affects the colour, so all of these were diluted with cold water to make them the same. My fingers were blue, and it wasn't the gloves leaking either.

Normally semi-solid fibre is £9 per 100g, but some of that cost is not the fibre, dye, electricity and so on, some of it is the admin side of running the Yard. Since these will go out in larger packs I am passing the time (and cost) saving on to you. So these are £35 for 500g of hand-dyed fibre which is just £7 a braid.
If you would like to make a child-sweater with handspun then according to my Knitter's Handy Book of Sweaters, a drop shoulder sweater for a 36 inch chest will take about 1400m at 7 st per inch. This is about 300m per 100g.
A sweater for a 40 inch chest takes about 2000m.

A child-sweater, or something sleeveless should be very possible from 500g.
An adult sweater is more tricky, because the difference between fitted and unfitted and knitting for someone of 5 foot 3 or for someone who is a foot taller but the same chest size will mess up the maths, big time. So I am offering all these colours in 500g lots but in most cases there are actually 2 x 500g available.
I absolutely cannot replicate colours, so please choose the appropriate amount. Semi-solid fibre is versatile stuff so it can be used for socks or shawls or given as a gift, it certainly won't go to waste.

If you choose 2 x 500g then as a special Christmas treat I will give you ten braids for the price of nine, and I'll send you an e-voucher for £7.00 which you can use against your next purchase. This makes each braid only £6.30!
I won't be able to keep this offer in place for ever, so if you are tempted, grab them quickly... or tell Father Christmas.
I don't think there will be any more sweater packs until January after these are gone.

In other news...

Gavin has a hole in his wellies, I think they have just split from lots of use.
He went this morning to the Post Office to buy another pair. Don't laugh, it wasn't the village Post Office, it was the one in the next village which is bigger and sells seeds, copies of Smallholder News and Pig-keeper Monthly and The Farmer alongside Hello and The Beano.
It also sells screws, saucepans, cheese-graters, acrylic yarn, sandpaper and macaroon bars ... you get the idea.

There were no wellies.
So he went to the Garden Centre which is next to the Feed Store (sounds like the Prairies) which is where we get dog food, dog chews, wild bird seed and menopausal-chicken feed. The Garden Centre didn't have wellies either.
They told him that wellies were very hard to get at the moment.
There is a national wellie shortage.

He is wearing a poly bag over one sock.
He needs new wellies.

I am on a wellie hunt.
I'll let you know how I get on.

n

Sprouts, Swallowtail and Sweaters

My veg bag has arrived. This week we have

• tatties - nice big ones so maybe for baking as well as other things
• carrots
• onions
• beetroot
• a kohl rabi
• white cabbage - not one of the frothy leafy ones
• a crown of baby brussels sprouts
• two leeks
• two heads of broccoli
• a box of beansprouts - not the wimpy supermarket kind, but a mixture of crisp lentil sprouts, mung sprouts and chick pea sprouts. These are far too nice to stir fry.

So, over to you... what shall I make?
I will do the usual big pot of tattie, onion, carrot, ham and red lentil broth which I make every week, but apart from that I'm not sure.
A leek and parmesan quiche perhaps?

There will be a shop update this evening. Not huge because I have been club-dyeing but there will be the new yarn, Betwixt.
It has been tested by my friend Ann.
I gave her a single 26g skein and this is what she did with it.

and in close up...

There are more details on her blog, but the sharp eyed will notice this is not quite a Swallowtail, there are four rows missing from the peaks as there wasn't enough yarn. It's a 26g skein, about 300m, and is intended for slightly smaller projects than this!

The Update will also debut brand new sweater kits for fibre spinners.
These are sweater quantities of semi solid fibre (this week it's BFL superwash) which are offered not as single braids, but in 500g lots.
500g is enough for a small person sweater (by which I mean a child-sized one) or perhaps for a waistcoat, or maybe a grown up sweater if you spin it as a fine 4 ply.

I have dyed up one kilo lots in each colourway so if you need a full kilo then you can have that too.
The price is a little lower than it would be for 5 individual 100g braids because I can save time on processing the order and on packing if it is sent to one person. And if you choose 2 x 5 x 100g then I will give you ten braids for the price of nine. This discount will be sent as an e-voucher which you an use on your next order.

This is the first time I've done this so there are only a few colours, but if it's successful, there will be plenty more soon.

And finally I am pleased to tell you that p/hop is featured in the new Yarn Forward magazine.
If you have dropped in here because you have read the article, then Welcome!
The p/hop Just Giving widget is in the sidebar to your left - isn't widget such a lovely crunchy texturous word?
Several people have made donations this week after using free patterns, and a couple have donated instead of sending Christmas cards, or because they bought one of the second hand one-penny books mentioned in the last couple of blog posts. One amazing knitter has relieved me of some guilt inducing frogged yarn which I knew I would never use, and she has donated because she knows she will enjoy the rewinding and reknitting. Wasn't that a lovely thing to do?
If you were one of these people... thank you.

The Update will be at about eight this evening. I'll try and post a couple of pics as a PS on this post later, so if you are reading this as a blog-feed, do remember to check back.

n

PS I am still thinking about the last book... there may be two of them making a "top eleven".

And the other five.

The second five of my top ten books are a little quirky.

The Diary of a Farmer's Wife 1796-1797 

The link is to the amazon page with a photo of the book, but if you search for the title only you can pick this gem up for a penny, just like Happenstance from yesterday.
Anne Hughes wrote "her boke in wiche I write what I doe" in 1796 and it passed down through her daughter and then transcribed later.
She is  the wife of John (who gets short shrift on many occasions), a farmer with pigges and cows. She has a maid called Sarah, and the book is peppered with narrative recipes, and visits from her mother in law who she likes immensely because she helps. One day she is playing her spinaret, the next she is butchering pigges and on another she decides not to go to church because Sarah's mother dies and she goes to lay out the body. John lets the family live rent-free in the cottage they were living in because he doesn't want them to be homeless, and he finds work for the son so they don't starve. He pays the boy two pense a day. He is ten years old.
She is pithy and to-the-point.
"Sarah did burne the dinner, like she always do, and John was very cross therebye, he mysliken Sarahs cooken, so I do sometimes hav to let him think it is me. Men be verry tiresome sometimes."

No change there then!

Plain and Simple - Sue Bender

A mere 33 pence this time (this is turning into the bargain book hunt!).
Sue Bender is an artist. She visited an Amish woman, a midwife, and wanting to stay in touch, she asked if the woman (Sarah) would make her a doll. Amish dolls have no features. Over the next few months several women sent her dolls and she decided she wanted to know more. so she placed the following ad.

WANTED
Middle-aged married English woman desires to rent room for a few weeks this summer with Amish family. She has good habits.

The book is the story of her encounters with the Amish community. It's a gentle book. You will love it.

The General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales - Chaucer.

I "did" this for A level English with a wonderful teacher who read it in the old English.
This is another penny-book. If you can get an audio version to play alongside it as you read then it will bring it alive. I looked for cd's but they are silly money... you can get a cassette (remember those?) for another penny though! It introduces all the characters... and if you want another one, try the Wife of Bath's tale... very risque! (And another penny.)

Mother Tongue - The English Language - Bill Bryson

If you yell at the TV over grammatical errors, or if you are fascinated over the contrary meanings of sweater, jumper, pinafore and pants in American English and British English, this one is for you.
For word-geeks everywhere. Nuff said.

The last one.... Hmmm. I need to think about this.

And...

... we have a new comments system, so you can reply to comments written by other people and create "conversations" and threads within the comments.
If someone says "Yes I adore Alan Bennett too" and you want to reply to them "yes, and Talking Heads is the greatest thing on TV" then your comment will be linked to their comment rather than appearing chronologically.

Try it on the book post and you'll see how it works.

n