Needles on the Move

I have a very small stash. So small, I don’t even bother to join in the ‘own up and bare your shame’ things that float around the internet from time to time. It helps that I have access to a rather large stash at work which is available should I ever feel the need, I can keep an eye on the things I like and only need to buy them when stock wears down to the last couple of skeins.

I also rarely buy without a project in mind. When I look at this:

I see this: 

There is hardly any yarn in my drawer which doesn’t have a project idea attached to it, if not an actual pattern. I look at yarn, I decide what I want to make, I buy enough. Mostly, I start knitting it.

I’m telling you this now because I’m an honest kind of person. I am kindly giving you full opportunity to be able to say “Hah! Told you so!” should the opportunity present. I’m not going to sneakily acquire stash and then pretend that all along I never actually had any anti-stashing values. I’m nice that way. Because you see, this weekend is Skip North. The Skip North where 50 nutty knitters hop on a bus and go yarn shopping. The Skip North where there will be yarn for 1p per gram. 1p. Per gram. Nic has been laughing at me for weeks:

Diane: “I don’t know that I’m going to get much - I don’t have anything in mind, maybe yarn to knit Ivy… I’ll probably look at fibre for spinning…”  Nic: “Just wait until you see the 1p per gram yarn - then you’ll cave, they all do (insert evil laughter here)”

So who’s right here? Nic has done this before - she has experience. Will I be able to stick to my philosophy? Will I come home with just the 11 balls I need for Ivy and some Shetland fibre. Or will there be photos of me on the Skip North page, overcome by the bargains and giggling hysterically while feverishly clutching more and more bags of yarn to my chest? Caption: She finally stopped buying yarn when the store ran out.

On Monday I will reveal all.

Don’t Give Up Your Day Job…

Today I gave up my day job. I am no longer a primary school teacher: I am a writer, I am a designer, I am a knitting/spinning/crochet teacher and, funnily enough, I enjoy all those things more than being sworn at by snotty little kids who I will never get any joy from as I’m only there for a day.

My Reasons (apart from being sworn at):

1. The book wasn’t getting done. Mum read through the plan last week and said “um, this says ‘proposal to publishers end Feb’ … it’s the end of Feb now…” so we pushed the proposal date back. And I realised that that was going to happen a lot if we didn’t actually do some WORK.

2. I can’t be a famous (or even struggling) writer/designer if I don’t submit anything. If I had gone to school today I would almost certainly have missed the Knitty deadline which snuck up on me and went BOO! this week.

3. Stomach cramps on Monday mornings.

4. Getting up early on Monday mornings.

5. Sometimes you just have to go with your gut feeling.

Incidentally, I haven’t actually quit my agency, I just don’t intend to call in for a while. It’s there in reserve in case I find I’m missing the pitter patter of medium-sized feet (hah) or I start to starve.

—

I may write more on this later, at the moment I need to go earn a buck.

Ciao!

I love this yarn. More than anything I’ve ever spun. Much more than the pink laceweight which became a chore after the first 15 hours or so.

Firstly, the fibre is Polwarth from Tarndwarncoort. This is the most awesome fibre to spin, still crimpy after processing and drafts beautifully into a soft springy yarn.

Secondly, I can’t stop drooling over the colours. I sent mum a picture of a roving I found on the internet and said ‘I want it kind of like this’ - with colour genius I can only dream about (I don’t do colour) She produced something magical. The  greens blend into the blues and the blues blend into the purples and they all complement beautifully. Normally I’m not one for ‘flecky’ 2-ply yarn where the colours mix randomly, but somehow this just works and I spun without even thinking about where I was putting the colours.

I have 200m in this skein at about a fingering/sportweight and I still have another 50g. Can’t wait for the weekend to spin the rest.

London looked like it had had a bath today. Not surprising as yesterday it rained practically without stopping the entire day (occasionally the rain did stop and it hailed for a while). This morning everything was bright and sparkly and the sun shone on the daffodils.

It’s kind of weird having daffodils in March - I’ve always thought of them as my ‘birthday’ flower as, back home, they usually start popping up towards the middle of August. Daffodils in March is just another of those ‘oh yeah, I live in London now’ things. Like buying crisps to have with your lunch and knitting on the tube instead of driving to work. I totally dig the not-driving-to-work deal by the way (lol).

And the purple sock yarn? It wriggled up from the bottom of the Lorna’s Laces delivery, chewed its way out of the plastic bag, caterpillar-humped across the shop and … fell into my bag. Would you believe it!

Actually, without going into details, I’ve been under a bit of a cloud lately and the sock yarn is a gift to self. There are few ills that purple sock yarn can’t cure.

Ciao!