The knitting scout ( I was a girl guide myself)....

OK so I am probably behind everyone else in getting my badges but I felt I was able to award myself the following badges.....

This is the talking about knitting badge.

The “Proselytize Knitting” Badge - A requirement for all Knitting Scouts, the recipient must do his or her bit to present knitting in a positive light, whilst at the same time avoiding all references to “hipness”, grandmothers, and yoga.

Whoops maybe I can't have this one as my whole blog is Yogic Knitter!

I do however talk about knitting constantly. It frequently comes up in my maths lessons in school. I am certainly very postive about it and I'm constantly offering to share my skills with others - whether they want me to or not (umm must think about that one).

Actually I really did get my knitters badge when I was a Girl Guide back in the 1980's. I still have it carefully sewn on my camp blanket.

I put a claim on this one too. The “MacGyver” Badge (Level One) - The recipient must demonstrate clever use of a non-knitting tool in a knitting-related scenario. For instance, recipient has used paper clips as stitch markers, or successfully whittled and then utilized bamboo skewers as dpns. I have had to do this many times as I never seem to have everything that I want. I have used chopsticks for knitting needles and various items as cable needle substitutes.

I will have to start working on MacGyver Level Two next -

The “MacGyver” Badge (Level Two) - The recipient must demonstrate clever use of a knitting tool in a non-knitting-related scenario. For instance, recipient has used a strand of Regia Bamboo to slice cheese, or repaired a small appliance with a metal knitting needle.

I am sure I have used crochet hooks in strange ways. I am taking up Robynns challenge to get to MacGyver Level Three.

Yarn stash from Socktopus ...........

So here is the bag....

Here is the lovely wrapping.....

....all tucked up nicely inside with the fab pink tissue.
Ok so here is what I bought at the Socktopus launch party on 14th September after a few glasses of wine etc.........
Lovely colours, and lovely textures.......

This is 2 x 50 grm skeins of Chameleon Colourworks Evolution in Flamingo Sunrise. These were the first two skeins I picked up in the evening and never put down. They remind me of Rhubarb and Custard.
This is the 100grm Smoochy yarn in Petal Shower.

This is the first two skeins of Sheldridge Farm, I also bought another two skeins in browns pictured below.

This is the skein that got away. (Also Sheldridge Farm) Yes she stole it! (Well I made the mistake of putting it down for a minute.) The one on the far right of the picture. She has my skein under her chin.

It really was a fab evening. All I need now is some time to start knitting and another borrow of Gabrielles ball winder and swift. I have put them on my christmas list so I have one of my own. I did look rather a wally down at the gym last week with the ball winder and swift set up in the bar so that I could wind my skein of cashmere.

An evening with Socktopus...........

Yes I did make it to the Socktopus Launch Party on Friday night, although I very nearly didn't. After a quick leg wax it was home, pack the knitting bag, grab money, grab phone, get out the door. And then go back in the door again when I realised I had left the invite and directions on the table.

It was a brilliant evening, so good to mix with and meet other knitters, some from Ravelry and some not. There were even men there and I really did see one hold a skein of yarn like he actually knew what it was for. (Maybe that was the liquid refreshment making me think that.) It was good to put some names and faces together with Raverly guys. Thank you to those of you who have now kindly added me to your list of friends.

Gabrielle this is for you 'an evening with FL&RD', sorry it just had to be blogged somewhere so I thought I would do it.

Despite my initial panic for trains and tubes and not really knowing where I was going I actually managed to arrive five minutes early. A little while later Alice arrived with all the lucious yarn and her pug dog who was very entertaining all evening. I have to say as well as lovely yarn there were also some very delicious nibbles, especially those little chocolate things. They were like a mini chocolate pudding, but bite size covered in chocolate and oozing chocolate out of the centre.

I came away with an armful of yarn after having a great hand and arm massage. I ended up shopping twice, although I do have one regret, there was a skein I put back and when I went to pick it up again it had gone. I have since looked at the launch party photos on Alice's blog and have located the knitter that 'stole my stash' the evidence is clearly in her arm!!!!!!!!

Gabrielle, knowing me all too well saved me from making the same mistake twice and thrust a skein of pink Smoochy onto me while I stood waiting to pay as she said she didn't want to put up with me on the train home whining and whinging about how I should have bought it etc....

Pictures of purchases to be added as soon as I have charged up the camera.

Emilie's cushion is finished

Well over another week has gone by already. I finished the cushion and stitched it all together.

Here are some of the progress photos, the better ones taken by Gabrielle for me - I now know about the flower dial on my camera - no wonder it wouldn't let me do close up.

This shows the patches sewn together and part of the back which I decided to do in stripes. I have done the back in two pieces with an overlap at the back which is done up with three lovely buttons that I bought in John Lewis last week. At one point I never thought I was going to get it sewn up in time, there were so many ends on the stripes. Anyway all done now. I still need to get a photograph of the finished item. The main thing is Emilie loved it so good job done.

Busy, busy , busy..............

Well since the Bank Holiday Monday it seems to have been nothing but non stop. I went to look at the progress on my classroom which is being refurbished to come away in sheer shock. There is no way we can have children in next Wednesday. However, I have been assured that all will be completed by the time the children come in.
Well went in on Monday to find a classroom that was almost liveable. It was missing a few obvious things like door handles! My interactive whiteboard was a distant memory and there were no tables or chairs for the children to sit on, in fact there was no other furniture in the rooms at that stage apart from the very limited fixed units.
After staff meetings and lunch it was time to move everything it, so everyone was on hand to pass everything from storage to the five newly refurbished classrooms. I never realised how much teaching stuff I had. I think I could resource an entire school. I had three boxes of stuff just belonging to the Knitting club that I run at a lunchtime. Needless to say I didn't get home until late that evening. I eventually got in after 9.30pm and the same the next night too just so that the children could get in on the Wednesday morning.
Oh well term has started OK and there is still much unpacking to do and knitting has been seriously off the agenda this week. I am so glad I ventured out to Crimson Cafe last week to meet up with Robynn.

I now have the promblem of:

• classroom to unpack, put up labels and look nice
• sort out the problems with the new IT system in school
• planning for the term - to share with colleagues
• finishing knitting the cushion for Emilie's birthday
• plan the birthday party, food etc

...... and I really don't know where to start first as all are fairly urgent. The birthday cushion is required for Saturday and planning has to be in by then too. Birthday cake, required for the 16th. I think the only way to solve all this is to double the number of hours in the day and not sleep for any of them.

I guess they will all just happen and I just don't have to let myself get stressed about it! Often easier said than done. All will be OK in the end I am sure.

On a positive note I finished the tabi socks last week and my mobieus scarf of the Cat Bohrdi type. I will have to post pictures later. I also took more photographs of other finished projects to stick onto my flickr account. The wasp wig hat is also complete, having knitted it up in the novelty yarn and shown it to Robynn we were both in agreement that the curls would probably be lost in all the strands so it is most likely that it will be published without. I just need to get the pattern to her now, at least she is on holiday at the moment so I am off the hook on that for a couple of weeks.

Very excited as next Friday evening I am off to the shop launch of Socktopus - will blog about my visit next week and add links to the internet shop.

Right better go and get started on some of that curriculum planning.

Perfect pots for dyeing...........

Earlier this week I had another attempt at dyeing some more yarn the Kool aid way........ the above are the attempts drying on the washing line.


The first set of three are DK wool (50grm skeins) using a variety of grape, orange, tropical punch and strawberry. The second picture is a 100grm skein of Hipknits Laceweight cashmere getting its second dipping in Kool Aid as the first attempt still had some of the Butter Yellow showing where one of the ties was too tight. If you look closely enough you can see the lighter line where the original tie was.

Anyway next step is to have a go at dyeing self stripping sock yarn but this requires long skeins and different colours, so today I went out on a little shopping expedition for some tools.

And I found...........

........this isn't it great? Well it not too great from the outside it just looks like another one of those freezer boxes but on the inside it is perfect. (Well for what I need any way.)

It is an Everin - Nano Silver 5.2l box with click down, sealing thingies. It is also both dishwasher and microwave safe, great if you have a dishwasher. The microwave safe thing is important though for the dyeing process.


And then on the inside it looks like this.........


....with four separate compartments which lift out so you can clean them individually. This must have been made for dyeing self stripping yarn. I can put part of my skein in each of the little pots and microwave away. I am so excited all I need to do now is actually wind the very long skein that is needed.

And guess what? It gets even better.....................



.........I can keep all my little dyeing bits and pieces inside it to keep everything neat and tidy. I am obsessed with organising and having homes and places for things. Look just perfect for those little sponge brushes (also a bargain purchase today), and those lovely sachets of Kool aid in their colour groups. Just perfect!

I spent the evening on Ravelry............

Ok so I have to confess to not doing much (actually any) knitting at all yesterday as I decided to use the time to update my blog and spend a little (turned out to be a lot) time looking at Ravelry and finally having a go at uploading pictures and adding some completed projects. This meant the learning of many new skills, including the opening of a flickr account (yep behind the times on that one) and uploading pictures to it. I am sure there must be a quicker and easier way but I haven't found it yet. I now need to know how to link the flickr account to the blog which I know other friends have done. One step at a time.

Ravelry

I have managed to load up four of my projects and join three communities yesterday. I have joined the Storytellers, Namaste and London knitters. I haven't added any stash yet but I need to find a spare half day at least just to photograph and locate it all. Then it needs to be sorted into allocated projects where patterns, designs and sizes are already allocated and then into potential projects where I have a rough idea and then here is the yarn and I haven't got a clue but it looked too lovely to leave on the shelf so I bought it.

So what else does Raverly have to offer? I have already used the opportunity to search out and locate a number of patterns that I would love to knit and you are able to add those to your project queue. I haven't yet started my needle inventory, again another day is needed to locate them all so that I can start to make a catalogue.

I also want to find a Harrypotter group to join. There are also swap groups, the list goes on......

I did find it quite frustrating today trying to log on though it was taking 10 mins to load up the front page and another 10-15 to load up once logged in and sometimes crashing out all together but I am sure that this will iron out once they go to their big server. I am still part of the Beta test community at the moment. Overall though a huge thumbs up.

Looking forward to spending more time updating my notebook and getting all those projects loaded up.

Here is one of the things I am currently working on from knitters Bible:

I am using the basic pattern but have reduced it down to 3 colours.. ......

This involved a little maths challenge not unlike suduko to arrange the colours so that no two squares that were touching had the same colour and that each colour appeared in everyrow of almost. It is also a chance to try out some different stitches over a small sample

Here are some of the individual samples:

More samples to follow later in the week.............