Needles of Steel

One foot in front of the other...

noreply@blogger.com (steel breeze) — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 17:51:00 +0000

Well, I'm still here. There's not been much crafting to report, because I've rather lost my mojo of late. My FIL passed away late February after a short spell in UHCW and round-the-clock feeding by the four sons both there and when he returned home - using a dessertspoon takes forever. The funeral was the day after my birthday, and two days after what would have been his 91st birthday, so things were very low key this year, though we did have a small family buffet on the following weekend, which was nice. Keeping the house running whilst the Cog dealt with the family stuff every single evening really took it out of me - dozing off in front of the TV became our "hobby" for a time.

I also managed to wash the second Agnes cardigan (purple merino) wrong - it turns out "delicate" means spin the bejesus out of things to my washing machine - and the extra yarn it mysteriously needed to complete it suddenly resurfaced, leaving me with a cardigan for a giant. Yeah, as it was my second attempt at that cardigan I guess I'm cursed to never own it - I'm not entirely sure round yoked cardigans fit my frame anyway but it was such a pretty pattern! I am part way through frogging it. I think if I reuse the yarn it will be in a crochet pattern - I'm fed up of investing so much time in handknits that then have to be frogged!

However, all is not lost. I've been knitting and crocheting little hearts for UHCW's palliative care team - apparently they give them to patients and relatives - and I'm also crocheting a cactus amigurumi kit that was a birthday present. Finally we may have an unkillable plant in our NW facing living room. I've also been doing a bit of beading. Youtube is such an amazing resource, but I do wish I could find some books on the subject, because short little videos are kind of irritating to use as reference materials. I do love a reference book! Talking of which, I finally caved and bought "Structural Stitches" by Victoria Salmon, which is very inspiring - kind of the book Bill King would write, if he compiled all of his MKM articles.

So, I'm in a bit of a weird mood - I want to be creative but I don't seem to want to finish anything already in progress. Maybe delayed start-itis? Who knows?

Current mood: indescribable

Bling, socks and more yarn!

noreply@blogger.com (steel breeze) — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 16:51:00 +0000

Well, it's been an interesting time lately. Mojo has been lacking - partly because the weather has been ick and also because of other issues which I won't go into here. I've tried to make myself available to support my partner, and when that hasn't been required, I've been distracting myself with various social events, so there's not been much crafting time. The tumble dryer started shrieking and had to be replaced - the original manufacturer conned me into practically paying for a new one over twelve months (it and the washing machine are 8). When G returned from his snowboarding trip, we cancelled it and decided to go in for a new "heat pump" one. The old one actually destroyed several shirts when we first got it, and the sensor never sensed anything, so was costing a fortune to run and doubling as heating on laundry days. Some evil git scratched and dented my car and drove off, on a week when it could have happened in quite a few places (it still being dark fairly early), so that's another bill I could have done without. The less said about trying to get rid of our old sofa before the new one arrives, the better. It's been a trying year!

Anyway, this weekend was the annual Kegworth "Going round in circles" event. Owing to a complete oversight on my part, I'd already bought tickets for myself, Mum and sil to attend the "Sewing for Pleasure" show at the NEC on the Sunday, and they don't do refunds alas, so I could only attend Kegworth on the Saturday. It was a lot of fun to catch up with old friends and make new ones. As I was teaching a class, I didn't get time to knit anything myself, and then I packed away quite early and wished I hadn't. Anne ran a cool class on how to make mini socks, and I'm hoping I made decent enough notes to be able to make some more of these.

Aren't they cute?! Because of the dinky size, they are knitted as flat web and then grafted and sewn up one side. She even has a method for knitting the loop for adding to a keyring. I stayed for the evening meal, which was very nice, and then hot-footed it back home to bed. Yes, I did pick up some sock yarn, and no, I'll not bore you with the pictures.

The NEC show was also fun - this one mostly focuses on sewers (sewists?) but there are a few yarn stalls dotted about, alongside beads, printmaking, marbling, card-making / scrapbooking, and the usual oddities - a cheese stall, olives, rum, moonshine, garden furniture and clothes/handbags. Ironically I only picked up a few findings and beads, and two pairs of "harem pants" which are great for lounging around the house in. They'll also be great for holidays, should I ever be lucky enough to go on another beach holiday.

Some bling I picked up from the Southampton Bead Shop. It was all I could do not to buy more! So much lovely stuff!

Current mood: awake

FO: Ravellenic fingerless gloves and a beading WIP

noreply@blogger.com (steel breeze) — Thu, 19 Feb 2026 22:07:00 +0000

Well, the weather continues to be rubbish - either grey and very wet, or grey and freezing. Either way, the sun has packed up and left. I felt sure we'd wake up to snow on the ground this morning, but no, it's back to blah. This is global warming, I guess - more water than we know what to do with, localised flooding, and yet the nearest carwash is kaput again. Pah!

This Sunday just gone, I had a table at the Alexandra Arts spring studio stash sale day - local artisans sell off old stock and extras they don't want. I donated some bobbin lace books to the book table, and managed to sell off some socks, my old bobbin lace board (with half-completed bookmark in situ and loads of notes and extra stuff), a hand-knit cardigan and a few sewing items. I raised £46 for Dementia UK and rounded that up to £50 just because I like round numbers. I did pick up some beautiful antique glass buttons, beads and some pretty fabric. The weather wasn't great (despite a brief glimpse of the sun on Saturday) so visitors were low.

Anyroad, being a bit down in the dumps, I made a list of all my hobbies (I have a LOT) and whilst having a stash dive in preparation for the above sale, I rediscovered a necklace kit I must have picked up at one of the NEC shows, so that's in progress. I also knitted two pairs of fingerless gloves on the KH965i, mostly because it's currently the Ravellenic games and as a moderator, I felt I ought to contribute something. I'd forgot there's a "yarn unwinding" event, I could have waited to frog that diastrous circular cardigan and made it into an event. Ah well!

Sales table at the Alex

Fingerless gloves for the Ravellenic games, pattern is here. These are a great stashbuster and can be made in a long strip and then seperated later. T5 for sock yarn makes them a smidge too small (supposed to be ladies size) but would be great for teens. As this is sock yarn leftovers, one has to be frugal with the yarn!

Another pair, think I made these over Xmas but didn't blog about them. Added extra cuff in a contrasting yarn, possibly making them a little too long.

Beading in process - it's already further on than this, but seed bead spirals require good eyesight! The big yellow bead is a safety bead which will come off later.

Gorgeous glass button and bead eye candy!

Current mood: crappy

OT: Ugh.

noreply@blogger.com (steel breeze) — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 06:01:00 +0000

Well, I guess it shouldn't have come as much as a surprise, but the depths of midwinter seem to coincide with bad news in our family the last few years. Or maybe the news is always bad lately, and the season seems to commiserate with it?

My father-in-law K has had poor health for many years, having succumbed to ME after a nasty bout of 'flu in his late 60s. We stayed away to protect him during the pandemic, by which time he was almost completely deaf (my partner already wears hearing aids so that's hereditary). There was a waterworks infection which produced odd behaviour - but eventually it turned out to be vascular dementia. K used to smoke and presumably drink, as was more common in his era. The fact that the family have coped since his last hospital stay has extended his life by a few years, but after another kidney infection he's being released to come home to die. The only signs of life are growling, eye movement and breathing. It's horrible to watch, and I can only hope he slips away soon. As a family of engineers we feel powerless - our natural instinct is to think our way around such situations and repair them; but in this case there is no fix. The law in the UK sentences people to lingering deaths that we would not put our pets through. I was very lucky that my dad briefly rallied on my last visit - he was mentally with us 'til the end, and it turns out I was the last one to talk to him, a banal conversation about the weather I think!

So my mood is indescribable at the moment - anger at the universe for allowing such suffering, sadness for the family, admiration and sorrow. The Cog has been out every evening for the last few weeks, to take over from the constant attempts to get food and liquids into K in hospital - the nurses do an amazing job, but nobody can spare three hours to feed someone with a dessertspoon. So our meals have been in shifts, and it's a rare thing if we eat together at all. At least K has family to take care of him, though whether prolonging his life is humane at this point is debatable.

Amidst a rising tide of right wing rhetoric in the world, I note that many of the nurses were from exotic countries. Without immigrants, the NHS would collapse. Follow the money and use your intelligence, people, not the twisted tabloid media with their nasty agendas. Whilst the masses look the other way, the rich get richer. I was "reliably informed" by a supposedly intelligent work colleague that the reason her partner can't get a minor medical procedure done is because immigrants have swamped the NHS. It's nothing to do with years of underfunding, piecemeal privatisation by the back door, an ageing and increasing population, badly-paid staff leaving, and crumbling infrastructure. I suspect her anger at others is partially fired up by a badly-managed council HMO (House of Multiple Occupancy) starting up next door, which is forcing them to consider moving.

Anyway, enough. You can see, my mood veers from sadness to anger and back at the moment. Lack of sleep, work stress and a sore back isn't helping! Hugs to all who find themselves in need of them at this time, and never forget to kiss your loved ones goodbye. You never know when it might be the last time.

Current mood: indescribable

Hello 2026!

noreply@blogger.com (steel breeze) — Sun, 18 Jan 2026 15:42:00 +0000

TLDR: Updates on my absence, and some overdue project pictures

Hello blog! I'm sorry I've not posted in ages. Life gets in the way sometimes - I got busy at work, and then distracted by a new toy (more on that later), and I've fallen off a cliff on Ravelry too I'm afraid, which is embarrassing when you're a moderator of the big machine knitting group. Whoops!

Towards the end of last year I think I was subconsciously wrestling with the black dog a bit. I gained weight, I slept more - the Cog thought this was excellent, as my sleep always goes out of whack in the winter time and then I'm really grouchy - but as I tried to explain to him, sleep isn't something you can bank up. It resets itself every day - and as I'm usually an early bird, sleeping 'til 10am on a weekend is not normal for me. I suspect he was just enjoying some peace and quiet!

Anyway, life has taken a new direction lately. The Cog got laid off in mid November and promised me the house would be spotless (I'm still waiting on that, ha!). Automotive CAD jobs in the UK seem to have disappeared lately, so that's not good. We rearranged the living/dining room in early December - Eddie the psycho rescue cat is still sulking and has retreated under the Passap. Sorry Ed, but the room feels much bigger (we had the sofa as a "room divider" before) and it's staying for good, not least because we intend to replace the current sofa and coffee table with a corner sofa and some blanket storage.

As for machine knitting, I lost my mojo a bit. I've often said, one needs a good clear few hours to machine knit, whereas handknitting/crochet is an easy project to keep for in front of the tv - so machine knitting is a hard hobby to keep alive when you work full time. Like anything, practice makes perfect. I attempted a fairly simple fisherman's rib sweater on the Passap, and the first front has such loopy sides from dropped stitches, it could double as a rug. The second side went better - but as usual, I didn't make any notes of what size I was doing, etc. I really am my own worst enemy sometimes - it's not as if I haven't got a notebook for writing down what I'm doing! So the only machine knitting that happened towards the end of the year was finishing up more CSM socks for xmas presents. I had planned to make lots of "magic" yarn from the sock yarn leftovers, but that's also quite time consuming. I'm tempted to use the leftovers up to make fingerless gloves for charity. I also finally pressed the gold boucle cardigan I first mentioned here, and it looks a lot better.

On the handknitting side, I finished three cardigans. The purple merino (Drops Agnes) was a resounding success, other than I ended up playing yarn chicken at the end, and had to shorten the back to finish the second sleeve, having already had to buy a second lot of yarn in a different dye lot. Don't ask, I don't know what happened there! At the same time, I got tempted into buying some end-of-line super chunky cream with coloured flecks yarn. The cardigan took just over a week to knit because it was such thick yarn. Alas, I keep forgetting that chunky yarns don't suit someone as sturdily built as I. Also, the button holes are so large that I had a real struggle finding suitable buttons. I think it will go into the box for Knit for Peace that I am putting together. The circular green cardigan (Drops Modern Elegance) I started early last year has turned into an unmitigated disaster. It doesn't fit well, the armholes are too tight and the sleeves are too long. The yarn itself is very pretty, so I will unpick it and do something else with it.

I recently completed 25 years at my company, and got a small bonus because of it. I put the money towards a new bass guitar, case and practice amp. I've always wanted to learn bass guitar, and an ex of mine even made me one. Unfortunately, it is impossible to get the lowest string in tune because the bridge is too close to the neck (it was his first ever attempt, he's much better at it now). So it's gathering dust - kept for sentimental reasons, but no purpose otherwise. So I am currently teaching myself to play bass, which will, alas, mean less time for knitting. I am planning to attend and possibly teach at the annual Kegworth CSM event, but due to double-booking myself I will only be there on the Saturday.

So, that just about brings you up to date! I'll try to post a bit more on here, but no promises - I go through phases of hobbies, and right now knitting isn't top priority.

More CSM socks!

Agnes cardigan in Drops extra fine purple merino. Sorry for the busty picture, blame the camera angle! :D

The chunky aran cardigan - very cosy! Mistake rib, I added an extra line down the sleeves just to make them a bit more interesting.

The circular cardigan disaster - it's not for me!

The gold boucle cardigan - a Clair Crowston design

Some recent shopping bags - I love the Oriental one, the gold really glitters! The other two are from old IKEA pillowcases. Not shown, another plain white one which needs embellishment. Will probably donate some of these to the local foodbank, I have more than enough shopping bags. Also not pictured, a bunch of shopping bags I made as xmas presents last year. Oh well, it's noted here even if there are no pictures.

My new toy - an Ibanez bass in cherry red (now sporting a skull strap, this strap was temporary). I am in love! It seems to coordinate with other things in the living room too! Ha!

Current mood: okay

More socks

noreply@blogger.com (steel breeze) — Thu, 16 Oct 2025 17:31:00 +0000

More socks for the xmas box, though I might keep the rainbow ones for myself! Alas, I managed to shrink my Agnes cardigan in the wash, it's now so small it will only fit a child. I am an idiot! I've ordered some yarn to replace it but this time it'll be purple merino. In other news, I've been pootling around on the E6000, with varying degrees of success. That machine sure loves to show me who is the boss, it is so finicky around stitch sizes!

Current mood: annoyed

Some FOs

noreply@blogger.com (steel breeze) — Mon, 01 Sep 2025 19:33:00 +0000

I've been in the doldrums a bit lately, not entirely sure why. Hence, not a lot of crafting to report. The circular cardigan has been tinked back a number of times; apparently, increasing every other row isn't something I can do in company. I picked up a crochet pattern at the Summer Wool show in Ampthill and at least that is growing quite quickly, as long as I take care to keep the pattern aligned.

To try and get my "mojo" back, I made a Norfolk blanket and a simple scarf this weekend. I also added a pie crust edging to the Clair Crowston cardigan, which still needs pressing - I'm hoping it'll look less like a rag. I have a massive cone of this boucle yarn left, not sure what I shall do with it. It shreds at the smallest touch so I will be glad to see the back of it. Of course, the machine I originally swatched it on is now in the garage. This weekend, I did some swatching for some burgundy bamboo that I really need to get out of my stash, and hope to start work on something with that this week.

We had a short break in Swanage last week, and managed to get really good weather. It was absolutely packed though, so we didn't get to try out a fish restaurant on the seafront. Since the closure of Loch Fyne, I've really missed having something like that within driving distance. We visited Studland beach (nice, but rammed) and then went onto Durlston "castle" for lunch, which was much more relaxed.

After the hottest / dryest summer on record, the temperatures seem to be on the turn this week. I actually had the heating on in the car this morning! Yikes!

Current mood: relaxed

FO: Sideways fairisle with magicolour

noreply@blogger.com (steel breeze) — Sat, 12 Jul 2025 14:59:00 +0000

Only a lunatic knits a fairisle sweater during a heatwave. Oh well, I am that lunatic then!

Current mood: happy

Fun with fairisle

noreply@blogger.com (steel breeze) — Sun, 06 Jul 2025 19:00:00 +0000

Well, I had a fun weekend playing with the patterning on the KH965i, the Cog being employed elsewhere for the day. I've long hankered over making a sideways-knitted fairisle sweater, and having managed to acquire a simple Wendy Phillips pattern, the creative urge just overtook me on Saturday. All went well for a while, but the patterning mechanism starting to make a noise akin to a washing machine with rocks in (ok I'm guessing here, but it wasn't good!). I took the back parts off a few times but couldn't see anything amiss. Eventually I oiled both drum pivots, and the rotating black bar, and it seems a lot better. There WAS a bit of fluff back there but nothing out of the ordinary.

The sweater in question has patterned bands, I'm in love with it already, despite black not really being my colour. I'm using pink and blue Magicolour for the fairisle. One more sleeve and cuff to go and then just sewing up. I over-complicated programming the pattern for the welts - it's much easier just to start from row 17 than it is to try and extricate the pattern if you only need one repeat. Still, I'm pleasantly surprised at how easy the machine is to program. The manual is still terrible though!

If I make this sweater again, I might flip the pattern at the centre neck to make it more symmetrical, and posibbly pick a pattern with less long floats or use the ladder back technique. What with carrying the unused colour up the side, there was already enough going on. I fancy doing this for a Christmas sweater, though I'm tempted to swap to a V neck. I'm not a great wearer of round necks. I had a few false starts - a mispatterned band, and a sleeve that was 25 stitches too narrow. Oops.

Pictures to follow shortly!

Oh, and the KHC / two colour tuck problem I had in the last post seems to have evaporated. Performance anxiety perhaps? Who knows!

The circular cardigan is in time out. I cannot seem to keep my increases in order, one would think it would be easy. I seem to be tinking more than knitting on it. Ugh.

In non-crafting news, we paid to stream the Black Sabbath charity concert this weekend, having failed to get tickets. £25 (£33 after other charges - yeah, there's always someone making a quick buck) and you get zero toilet queues and a better choice of food and drink. What's not to like? The Cog streamed the first half (that we missed) yesterday. I wonder whether Oasis thought about streaming their concerts? Could be quite a money-spinner!

Current mood: enthralled

Long time no blog

noreply@blogger.com (steel breeze) — Sun, 22 Jun 2025 10:49:00 +0000

Gosh, I didn't realise I hadn't posted since March, sorry about that! There's not been much crafting to post about really. I started a handknit circular cardigan (a free Drops pattern), but it's gotten quite tedious so has been parked for a while. I did finally finish the cat cross stitch, it's waiting to be pressed and framed. We're in the middle of a humid 28C / 82F heatwave here, so doing anything much feels exhausting.

I got the donated SK260 up and running and it's been put away, because I have a knitweave project in mind and Brothers are much better for that I feel. I did finish a gold boucle cardigan on that machine, and it handled the yarn very well. We'll gloss over how many fronts I had to knit before I had a pair, gah!

I did run a very successful two day MK event at the Alex, at the start of June. I took the KH881, the KH260 and the KH965i. Apparently the chunky machine was a little badly behaved. I haven't used it in a while, it probably needs some maintenance. I had a lot of fun using the 965i to knit double bed jacquard. I couldn't get it to knit two-colour tuck to my satisfaction though - seems I have to change colours at the left end, which doesn't work with the colour changer. I got lots of loops - it should have knitted something, even if not the expected pattern. It's something I'll have to investigate further. Perhaps one needs to invert the colours or start on a different row? Hmmm. The manual is very hard to read, and the KHC manual doesn't mention any programming changes (possibly because it came out before the electronic machines). Oh well, something to work on...

Current mood: hot

Bits and bobs

noreply@blogger.com (steel breeze) — Thu, 06 Mar 2025 21:51:00 +0000

I had another lovely weekend at Kegworth, where I demonstrated and made 2.5 pairs of tube socks, despite my machine going "sproing!" at one point and trying to ditch the lot in my lap. The missing sock has been knitted but is still on the machine.

This keyboard case was actually made towards the end of last year and never got photographed. Not sure why! Pattern was made up on the fly.

Hat made from trophy yarn, a true one-off. Yes, it really is that neon in person!

And finally, the unfortunate Passap cardigan. It came out too short and there's way too much material in the sleeve head for me. Otherwise there's nothing wrong with it, but I went off it before I even finished sewing on the buttons. Pity, because it's a very cheerful colour.

Current mood: awake

FO: Peacock blue hat and Passap play...

noreply@blogger.com (steel breeze) — Mon, 24 Feb 2025 21:30:00 +0000

Apologies for the marks on the hat, the mirror needs a clean. Still using up this yarn, I've half a pair of fingerless gloves on the go too. Does this hat need a pompom, do you think?

I've been working on a v-neck cardigan on the Passap, from an unknown salmon pink 3ply. To give it some body I thought I'd use K/K (aka full needle rib) instead of plain stocking stitch, but didn't realise how much extra work it is to do increases in this fabric. I also (at one point) made a monster sleeve, that got frogged back. The cardigan is now finished but I forgot to add borders to the DAK pattern so it's a bit on the cropped side, and I'm not keen on how much extra fabric DAK seems to make in the armscye (but that could be operator error). A picture of that, next post. As I discovered, fully fashioned increasing as per the manual looks pretty neat. Being lazy and leaving the empty needle to pick up a loop is surprisingly holey! I guess it could become a feature elsewhere, but maybe not on the sleeves. Next DAK pattern I intend to measure myself and probably do raglan sleeves instead, I think they will work better though they are more work.

Fully fashioned increasing in K/K, step 1 - needles moved out

Fully fashioned increasing in K/K, step 2 - empty needles filled with heels of previous stitches

Result when it's done as above

Result when empty needles are returned to work with no heel

The cardigan came out a bit "meh" if truth be told, another one for the charity pile. The yarn didn't cost me very much so it was a useful exercise on the Passap more than anything else. I am working my way through the Bill King videos on the MKC and that was inspiring, so I am already planning other things this year and may rethink what I was going to do with some burgundy bamboo yarn.

This weekend I also had a play with the U100E transfer carriage, it didn't go so well but it turns out one of my brushes isn't in place (I thought it was a spare). Trying to work garter stitch out of the box was probably a bad idea too. I did play with long stitch, interlock and overknit which were interesting.

Next weekend I'm teaching at the annual Kegworth CSM event, so do say hi if you're there! Family issues have kept me quite busy and quietly anxious even though a lot of it is things I can only sit and watch.

Current mood: lethargic

FO: Agnes cardigan

noreply@blogger.com (steel breeze) — Sun, 02 Feb 2025 19:49:00 +0000

I think I accidentally doubled the buttonholes on this, but it doesn't really matter - I don't tend to wear them buttoned up anyway! Quite pleased with this and it's a cheerful colour.

Current mood: cold

Moving back into my room

noreply@blogger.com (steel breeze) — Mon, 27 Jan 2025 19:11:00 +0000

On Saturday, we had a lovely, almost springlike, weather. Alas my partner and I missed the first few hours of it, because we were busily swapping our WFH offices. The Cog's worked in my knitting room, first on a folding camping table, and then from a proper sit-stand desk, since the 2020 lockdown started. I took over what had been his desk in the box (third) bedroom - not sure if that's a term that translates outside the UK. A "box" bedroom is a small bedroom that will only really take a single bed and a few items of furniture. Anyway, we managed to rig up a screen set up that will work for him temporarily. He can't use one of his two old monitors because he didn't have the right connectors, and as it's temporary (he's going to buy himself a superwide monitor) he can work off his laptop screen for a few days. Luckily his laptop is bigger than mine. We actually moved some of the items on Friday night (mostly because he invaded the 3rd bedroom and started getting cute with me) but it did mean that some of the difficult stuff was already shifted. It was certainly nice to get hoovering up in there! So I've swapped the snug navy blue room with all my stationary supplies (sob!) for a larger sunnier room under the eaves which we painted in a cheerful yellow. Yes, that was the irony of the pandemic for me - I'd just got that room the way I'd wanted it, and then had to give it up! My WFH desk is where the E6000 used to be, because I don't like having a computer monitor blocking the precious sunshine. Neither room has a large window so it's a pity to block whatever sun comes in with a computer. Yes, I did draw my room up in CAD, but I think I got the east-west dimension wrong because I definitely can't stack the out of use machines in the corner without a fight. Ah well, nothing's perfect!

The two monitors plus mounting bracket went down a storm on Freegle and have already been passed on, I could have freegled them several times. The lack of manners of some folks though - one person lived 44 miles away. What on earth are they doing on Freegle Rugby? Don't answer that... As it was, a nice chap popped over at lunchtime and the set up now has a new home.

So, I've been attempting to use up the kingfisher blue yarn leftovers to make a hat. The first hat came out way too tight, and the second looked like a too-short condom, so it's been knitted and frogged twice. Let's hope the third time is the charm?! In both cases the machine fought me all the way but I think it's down to my being out of practice more than mechanical failure really. Let's hope this is the year I can get back on track in there!

Current mood: happy

A rose by any other name...

noreply@blogger.com (steel breeze) — Tue, 21 Jan 2025 17:59:00 +0000

Not much to report lately, other than I am making more roses! I am not sure I'm up to the amount that was hinted at, but I'll have a go nevertheless. I spent a fun few hours at the Alex with my friend C, and got her making a heel on her Russian CSM (which is quicker as it's an unusual midgauge CSM so less needles). She's also got two Gearhearts, only one of which is functional. The badly-behaved one actually cost more, so it just goes to show you never know.

All of the Christmas chocolate Roses and Quality Street have long gone, and the last of the Christmas snacks (asides from crackers for cheese). I find both chocolate brands disappointing now - the useful tins are now plastic and much smaller, and the selections less in both cases. QS wins for me because of the recyclable packing - I really do hate modern "flow wrapping", it was much more fun to delicately peel off the foil and try to keep it intact (not to mention it could be recycled). That pleasure is now solely restricted to the noisette triangle and Cadbury's Creme Eggs! Boo! I did receive some very nice Lily O'Brien chocolates which disappeared VERY quickly. I do also like those Lindor balls, too much in fact! The weather's been either very cold/icy or not quite so cold/foggy. I'm appreciating the chance to hibernate, even though I'm not home as much as I'd like for various reasons!

I'm still hoping to knit down some stash this year - I've some leftover teal wool from this jumper to use up, so either a hat, scarf or pair of gloves. I've never found making full gloves on the knitting machine much fun - the main part is ok but the fingers are such a fiddle I'd much rather do that bit on DPNs in front of the television. Of course, mittens are much easier. The next large project will probably be something in some burgundy bamboo, because the SK260 is up, and then something with knitweave which needs to be a Brother machine I think, for ease.

Current mood: impressed and still exploring the Machine Knit Community

Finished objects 2024 and the year in review

noreply@blogger.com (steel breeze) — Fri, 10 Jan 2025 17:33:00 +0000

In a slight change from previous years, I'll just link to the blog posts of last year's projects. I thought I hadn't done that much on the knitting machines, but it seems my attention was just elsewhere! To be fair, the first few months of the year were taken up with car stress, and later on I was focused on organising my first ever two day MK event in May. In July some work-related strife took up a lot of headspace and affected my mental health, which has taken some months for me to process.

My main focus this year was knitting down stash until it was all used up, hence two garments and all the dishcloths in King Cole Bamboo. I experimented with both two colour tunisian and cabled tunisian crochet, and experimented with and then sold on the Dean and Bean CSM when I decided I preferred the metal Imperia (less finicky and too delicate for this clumsy oaf!)

I'm currently exploring the amazing universe that is the Machine Knitting Community - it's very impressive so far, so much information! I'm on the pay monthly thing at the moment but may convert to annual now I'm getting the hang of it a bit! I really want one of their t-shirts, too!

Dean & Bean tube sock test #1 60 cylinder green

Dean & Bean tube sock test #2 60 cylinder blue - it's on Ravelry but not blogged apparently

Red Berry Hill 187-18, Tunisian sheep cushion

Brushed acrylic tanktop

Christine shawl, Passap simple baby blanket

San Marino Scarf - This did get finished but I cannot figure out where I posted that photo because it made it onto Ravelry

Passap scarf (Bitty)

Standard Gauge Lace Yoke Top

194-36 Blue Helix

Ballband dishcloth 2024, easy dishcloth

Light Heart Dishcloth - crochet, not pictured, gifted at xmas

Folding keyboard cover - crochet, not pictured for some reason

CSM socks: Autumn colours - These have been given to my cousin, he had a choice of colours but liked these best!

Mobile phone sleeve

Cabled headband

Falling leaves fingerless gloves

Finally, a crochet charity blanket from leftovers that didn't warrant an entry on Ravelry apparently...

Happy New year, happy new gear?

noreply@blogger.com (steel breeze) — Thu, 09 Jan 2025 20:22:00 +0000

Happy New Year! I hope you spent a lovely week off doing whatever you do. I just about managed to be better for December 24th, which was good as we had a buffet with one of the Cog's brothers and got to see part of their new house. Christmas day was just us, a nice lie in, a light lunch and chilling out over "Wallace and Gromit" and the "Gavin and Stacey" finale. I love that sitcom - Nessa is such a great character (though they're all really funny). Tidy! Mum came for lunch on Boxing day, and in the late afternoon we popped in to see Greg's parents. Dementia sucks, I only got a thousand yard stare from the Cog's dad, even tickling his feet didn't get a response. We had a fairly lazy week catching up on television (so many repeats, but the Lee Mack / Chris McCausland thing was funny), failed to meet a friend in Wolverhampton because they were also ill, and had a belated four course Italian xmas meal on the 29th. We met up with my sister's family and Mum again on NYE for lunch. Alas, the one vegan meal my sister had set her heart on was off at the local pub so she ended up picking at chips and looking miserable. Oh dear!

My best xmas present was a Brushboo (bamboo electric toothbrush) from the Cog, and some papercraft items from my lovely s-i-l. Everything else was mostly food and drink and we're still working through it! It's all a bit mad, really - I'm sure the money would be better spent on home improvements as we all have stuff we put off. I booked 2nd and 3rd off so had a fun day cranking with a machine knitting friend on the 2nd, and on the 3rd I was inspired enough to finally knit the second argyle sock. Alas, somehow I managed to make a mistake in the short-rowing but it's done, I'm over it.

My xmas present to myself was to replace my Pixel 4 with the Pixel 9. I *had* planned to pass my old smartphone onto my Mum as she wants to upgrade, but days later I got an email saying that Android is about to be upgraded to 15 and it'll adversely affect the battery life. Ugh. I'm back and forth trying to understand their appeasement thing but I reckon I'll be lucky to get £40 for it (or £80 if I want a new Pixel), and as mum doesn't NEED a gmail account and I'm getting fed up of the bots I appear to be conversing with, I'm tempted to suggest we go have a look for a newer phone for her as the Pixel 4 is about 7 years old. Can you believe the Google bots are now asking me for the receipt from 2017? Seriously? That's kind of insulting because I'll have to look through bank statements... Ugh! I think I'm going to take Mum to look at a new phone that's not tied to its operating system. Hello Moto indeed!

Mum had our "nativity scene" out on her mantelpiece this xmas, it was based on a Blue Peter project and was made when I was around 11 I think. My contributions are the scruffier ones. Mary looks like she can hold her own! Note, the cat is a new ornament, not part of the scene and is much better made!

Anyroad, I made a quick phone case on the CSM. It's on the 72/36 Imperia, usual rib tension, 75 rounds after the slip cast on and then carefully grafted. I can confidently say I now have a phone sock to match some sock socks!

I've also taken the plunge and joined the Machine Knit Community for a bit, see if I like it - I'd like to do one of their residential courses, but kept getting stuck at the password stage (and it may have sold out now). It closes soon to new members and won't reopen 'til April so if you were planning on joining, don't leave it too long! As yet I've not had chance to watch any of the videos up there (love me some Bill King) but that's my plan as soon as I get some free time.

Current mood: enthralled

Free pattern: machine knit roses

noreply@blogger.com (steel breeze) — Wed, 08 Jan 2025 22:18:00 +0000

We're doing an Alice in Wonderland themed yarn bomb in town this year, and I was sent a link to this video for making roses. Alas I have no intention of acquiring this machine, which takes DK yarn, but I've worked out how to make this pattern on a standard gauge knitting machine as follows:

Yarn: 4ply

Cast on 6 stitches over needles 6-1 left, K10 rows at the tension most suitable for this yarn (I used T7)
*Increase one stitch on the same side as the yarn tail, K10 rows. Rep from * until you have 18 stitches in work. Knit 9 rows, knit a 10th row at a loose tension and latch tool cast off. Leave a long tail for sewing up and break the yarn. Use the long tail to roughly gather up the increased edge, pull up and stitch the work into a spiral rose.

Tips:

If you increase by moving the end stitch out one, and pull the empty needle into work, it makes holes useful for sewing up.
I also tried making extra holes every 5th row (when there's no increase), this makes the centre a bit neater because there are more holes to sew up.
I also tried knitting this in 1ply in full needle rib on the Passap (so 6 stitches in work on both beds). It makes a more "tulip" shaped rose (see left, first picture) because the fabric doesn't curl.

Update

noreply@blogger.com (steel breeze) — Mon, 23 Dec 2024 14:04:00 +0000

Well, this month has been a bit of a dead loss, but I've only myself to blame really. I adore the social side of Christmas - less so the planning - especially since COVID blew our office working patterns out of the water. Alas, I am very good at ignoring my body until I'm actually dropping with exhaustion. Yes, it's just a very nasty head cold but I was washing hankies at quite a rate for a while there... thank goodness the Cog has a drawerful, I only have one gents pack I picked up at M&S and some "girly" sized ones that are fine when you DON'T have a cold! I kept thinking I was getting better, when in actuality I was making it take longer because I felt obliged to attend a few things I'd booked (and also I wanted to go, I can't completely blame others for my pig-headedness!). It's also very hard to rest at home when the house looks like Xmas exploded in it. Consequently I've been off sick for about a week, and although I probably could work from home tomorrow, nobody will be in the mood to do much anyway, those that aren't already on holiday. I'm currently ok as long as I stay still, moving about I've got a woozy head, and still a bit of an annoying cough, but at least the nose factory has powered down and it's only been from the chest up. I'm also napping randomly, my body is taking charge for a change, so I'll step back from driving for a bit and see how we go.

Good job I had no plans to do any Xmas knitting/crochet at least!

Best wishes to all and here's hoping for a peaceful, brighter New Year.

Current mood: exhausted

It's as if COVID never happened...

noreply@blogger.com (steel breeze) — Wed, 11 Dec 2024 16:29:00 +0000

I just can't seem to catch a break this year - I take a week's holiday (with 4 clear days when I could be machine knitting) and my beloved works from home most of that week (so about 1 hour of machine knitting gets done - his office is my knitting room). I plan ahead and make the lovely gloves below, a competition entry for "Environment" for Long Buckby - I figured out how to hand-manipulate the leaf pattern, though I've seen variations of it on lace punchcards too. Because the second half of the pattern creates a "spine" it involves moving stitches in a certain order, which takes a few passes on a machine but is fast to do by hand.

Lace "leaf" gloves. Sorry for the poor picture, this red doesn't photograph well!

The chart

The week before the competition, I finally get to fly out to my head office in the Netherlands (first time since 2019) for a day's training and... some selfish git brings their nasty cough on board on the return flight. No thought of catching it in their arm, hand, or maybe, you know, wearing a frigging mask? It's a 45 minute flight, you don't even get a hot drink because we're not in the air long enough. But it's long enough to have given me a very nasty head cold - I had a sore throat the day after the flight but thought I'd escaped because everyone's got their heating on at the moment. Not a bit of it - by Sunday afternoon it was a full on nasal catastrophe, and the thought of leaving the house to share the germs with the ladies of the Long Buckby machine knitting club just didn't appeal (and yes, that was my last "holiday" of 2024, ugh). I'm finally on the mend today and honestly can't be bothered to go through the hoo-hah of cancelling holiday to commute it to sick as I'm running out of days to take this year. Seriously people, did you learn nothing in 2020, or do you just not give a damn about others?

On that note I popped to Sainsburys today to pick up a few items and get petrol, and got a very odd look from an older lady on my way out of the store because I was wearing a mask. It's not COVID, I tested - I had that ealier this year, and if it's 'flu it wasn't the one I got vaccinated for - usually I get 'flu as an awful ugh feeling with no respiratory symptoms. Maybe I just looked ill, who knows?

On a more positive note, before all of this kicked off, we took a Dutch friend on a whistle-stop tour of Birmingham, Coventry and Rugby. This bull is now installed at New Street station (the shopping centre is Grand Central but I'm pretty sure the train station name hasn't changed despite seeing information to the contrary online). It was part of the commonwealth games - it moves its head and eyelids. Originally I think it breathed smoke too. I've just been reading the comments under that video, wow! Lots of folks reading devil worship into what happens to be a symbol from Birmingham's flag!

The New Street bull, no longer flammable

Current mood: lethargic

Busy doing nothing...

noreply@blogger.com (steel breeze) — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 20:53:00 +0000

Apologies for the dearth of posts lately... The change to GMT always affects my ability to do more than tread water - it being dark when I finish at 4.30pm, it's all I can do to cook and keep the house sanitary of an evening. So far my sleep is ok, but I seem to get tired earlier. Though handknitting is happening - it's a much "cosier" activity in front of the tv, don't you think? I think I need to drastically reduce the contents of the knitting room. I seem to have amassed a lot of books and patterns that I'll probably never get around to using, many of them from estate donations. This has a two-fold effect - I can't locate the patterns I DO wish to knit (the Posh Frock cardigan that seems to hide a lot is currently missing again), and then I end up getting sidetracked looking at other patterns and disheartened when I can't find something that matches up with either the yarn I want to use or the mental image of what I want to produce. I've got a large green ringbinder full of self-published patterns that I "might want" to make at some point, but clearly I don't want to enough! I think I may scan the "maybes" and donate the rest to TWAM. Consequently, after an hour of sensory overload and a bit of tidying up / sorting, nothing much gets done! Ugh!

I was recently lucky enough to buy a hardly-used Brother KH965 which had been upgraded to the KH965i (it means it has a port I can connect to DAK). For various reasons, it's been haunting the living room ever since, whilst I found the time to dig out the KH950i acquired in 2009, steal its spongebar and check that that machine is complete enough to be donated or sold on. Surprisingly, the KH950i is MUCH heavier than the KH965i. As the main difference between the two is the lack of a mylar sheet reader, I can only assume they fashioned the reader out of a house brick! As the KH950i arrived ignomiously smashed, wrapped only in a refuse sack (yes, the seller was at fault, not the delivery company), it's lucky it's working at all. It's been a great little machine and I hope to find it a loving new home. In the meantime, the new addition was put through its paces with a little patterned "air knitting" and all is well, so I will assume the rest of it is fine too for now. Of course, now I want to get it set up, despite having done a bunch of swatches on the 260K machine which is currently up, because I found a bunch of garter stitch patterned jumpers. Argh! Oh, for a proper workroom where I could have more than two machines up at once!

Asides from the crafting, xmas preparations are underway here. I jacked in the netball, because it didn't turn into a social thing in the end - more a being run ragged by thirty-somethings who learned not to throw the ball to me because I'm slower and rubbish - and am looking for something else to expand my social circle. Last night it was a very wet hike around the local area, which is apparently rich in history - I learnt none of it, alas - I think the lead walker's notes dissolved! I guess most of us were grateful to keep moving and warm. Today we awoke to falling snow. I may try joining a local choir next. After all my failed attempts to meet new local like-minded people, I'm beginning to think it's not meant to be. I feel somewhat bereft that my almost-sister-in-law moved away, but we rarely saw them anyway. Oh well! Perhaps I need to accept my lot, and hibernate in GMT.

Current mood: lethargic

Electronic knitting machines for beginners

noreply@blogger.com (steel breeze) — Mon, 18 Nov 2024 20:01:00 +0000

There seems to be lots of confusion regarding electronic knitting machines, so I figured an article explaining what it's all about would be a good idea!

First and foremost, an electronic machine does NOT do the knitting for you. You will still have to move the carriage side to side manually. If you want to automate that process, you need a drive or motor. They are like hen's teeth to get hold of, and they mount above the machine on a big frame, and you hook the carriage handle up to them. I've only ever seen the Silver one for sale in person once, and it was £1000. Brother had something similar but they're only rarely available second hand. The Passap E6000 can have a drive fitted which extends the machine by a good 600mm on the right hand side, and the back lock plugs into it. I'm thinking of the Electra 4600 here, there are other earlier models I'm not familiar with. Again, it was sold seperately, and is very hard to get on its own.

An electronic machine is identical in every way to the punchcard machine except that it can knit pattern repeats other than just the usual 12st, 24st, or other mechanical variant (depends on your machine). So if you wanted to knit a stitch pattern that was a 5 sts wide repeat, you could do it easily electronically - it doesn't divide easily into 24. If you want to knit a design that is 200 stitches wide, you could do it as long as you have that many needles (and that much patience - I'd be using Designaknit here). Obviously, the next question is how to program this in.

Brother (aka Knitking / Compuknit in the US)

Some Brother electronics came with built-in mylar sheet readers. This is a plastic sheet, usually 60 sts wide, that you colour in using a special black ink pen. The machine itself would read this sheet in and memorise it to its memory or RAM. You could put more than one design on the sheet if you wanted to. You could also split larger designs into columns and rows, and program it in a particular order. As long as the machine has enough RAM, you can program pretty large patterns. Early machines only had these readers, and they could be quite temperamental. The mylar sheet reader read black or white squares.

Any Brother electronic with i in the model name, has a special port which can be used to connect to both the Brother PPD (a programming device) and the modern Designaknit (DAK) software via a special cable. The KH950 and 965 came in both variants, and an upgrade kit could be bought to convert them to the i (replacing the whole electronics part and adding that extra port).

The Brother KH950i socket

A PPD

PPD onscreen display

Floppy disk drive

Some Brother electronics came with cartridge ports. These are along the lines of the old console game systems - you could use the PPD to program the cartridge which has some memory in it, and then plug the cartridge into the machine. The PPD itself is basically a very early computer, with cursor keys and black and white buttons. It connected to a TV via the analogue aerial port, so you could create patterns on screen and save them to the cartridge - there are even rudimentary copy and paste functions, though it's very tricky without a mouse. There was also an additional disk drive (FB100) which used a very early 3.5" floppy disk format. I think it may have been possible to connect the FB100 directly to the knitting machine if it was an "i" model, otherwise you had to load the floppy disk designs onto the cartridge via the PPD. You could read designs TO and FROM the cartridge using a command line style screen, and you could also transfer patterns TO and FROM the knitting machine memory itself.

The KH965 is also on-the-fly programmable, ie black and white buttons and cursor keys.

All of the later Brother machines had built-in libraries of stitch patterns, and they are programmed as if on a sheet of graph paper, exactly how they appear in the Stitchworld books. This means you can use part of a pattern, or even some of the pattern and the white space around it, to generate new patterns. These machines also had pattern variation buttons, allowing you to mirror, change the height and/or width, or invert the colours, and it's also possible to split a 2 colour pattern for double-bed jacquard.

Silver (aka Knitmaster, Studio, Empisal, Singer depending on locale).

Silver machines were a lot more modular. They never came with built-in stitch libraries. Early ones had pattern variation buttons, eg reverse direction, double-width/height, mirror etc, that would work with mylar sheets that are very similar to the Brother ones except they are printed in red, not blue (and the start line is slightly different). The later ones (eg SK840) are completely "brainless" - the only electrical part about them is a cable and its socket on the carriage. This means that they need other additional devices to program them, otherwise any patterning is manual.

The EC1 looks like an old dot matrix printer, except it reads 60st wide mylar sheets marked in pencil (this device reads shinyness). You ran it, powered, alongside your knitting machine. It has the variation buttons as above, and it's basically an electronic version of a punchcard, reading line by line as you knit. This could be further extended with the addition of a PE1 (Pattern Extender). This took a special memory card, which you could read and write to, and has a 5 line LCD display that meant you could double-check any pattern read into it from a mylar sheet. The PE1 is no use on its own, it only worked when plugged into the EC1. A later development was the short-lived PC10, which combined the EC1 and PE1 in one box - it also contained all the original Silver mylar sheets programmed in. However, a major downside was that there was no way to connect it to anything modern data-wise (eg USB or DAK) - the only media it took was an old compact flash card format. Needless to say, it flopped!

EC1

PE1

PC10

You can opt to send patterns only with a Silverknit box - this uses a small piece of software to transmit stitch patterns ONLY directly from your computer. You can also purchase a Silverlink cable - this is the cables to talk to DAK, plus a silver box which is the memory needed to store the information. This is why the Silverlink cable is more expensive than the cables for the other machines.

I'm not going to cover Superba, Toyota or Passap/Pfaff here because I'm not familiar with them. The electronic machines can all be used with DAK as long as the correct cable is purchased; most punchcard machines can also work with DAK but only for garment shaping, the patterning remains mechanical. However, if you don't want to take the DAK route there are other options such as the AYAB board, arduino, Img2track and other "hacks".

This is a brief explanation of various options, the dotted line is because the PE1 is optional. Cables don't neccessarily download AND upload, it depends on the model.

FO: mobile phone sleeve, Etsy and other things

noreply@blogger.com (steel breeze) — Tue, 01 Oct 2024 19:08:00 +0000

This probably looks pretty underwhelming but it fits the 'phone well (and I'm too lazy to dig out another camera just to take a picture of it in use, sorry!). 50 stitches on the Brother KH950i at T6 with some hand-manipulated cables. This was knitted during a one day event I organised at the Alex on Sunday just gone. I helped E knit a penny sock and C did a bit of fairisle and tuck. If you're local you can subscribe to my local events on the right hand side of this post, and even if you're not local I run a monthly machine knitting zoom and a whatsapp group, please sign up and join us!

Nobody will have probably noticed, but I've taken my three machine knitting crash course leaflets offline for the time being. Apparently I've made more than 2000 sales or too much money - neither are true, but I suspect Etsy has just sent a blanket email to everyone rather than do any maths - because I now need to register as a sole trader and get a tax code, even though I doubt I made more than 15 sales of £1.30 in a year (Etsy gets the extra 30p). As I've no idea how or if I want to go to the hassle of setting myself up with a tax code, it's all parked for now. I might well offer the leaflets for free anyway. Not sure yet! I've nothing against paying tax (I already do, being in full time employment), it's just a hassle I could do without right now because presumably once I register I have to do an annual tax return (even though I'm well under the £1k a year threshold). So, well done HMRC - though to be fair, this is an international thing - nobody seems to be in a hurry to chase down anyone big (with the exception of Apple). As the Etsy market was already flooded with lots of sellers selling scans (many of which are already available for free from the MKmanuals site), and the rest being copyrighted material that shouldn't be legally resold in such a manner, I was already swimming with the scum, so what is the point? I give up! As for selling the socks online, well, people would much rather buy store-bought and short-lived alas.

The weather seems to be mirroring my mood - wet, grey and grumpy!

Current mood: cynical

Playing with cables, and pyjamas for a rhino

noreply@blogger.com (steel breeze) — Thu, 26 Sep 2024 17:57:00 +0000

So not a title I ever thought I'd use, but there you go! I think I purchased Bill King's excellent book all about machine knitting cables not long after it came out, and thought I'd have a bit of a play with it. As always, I had the urge to jump in around page 30, which probably explains my initial lack of success, but I did get there in the end!

First up was what I'm going to term "missing needles" all over cables. The sample above is worked over 20 needles at T8 (MT+2 for this yarn, which is a 4ply acrylic). It's worked by moving stitches 3 and 4 (I counted from the end nearest the live yarn and carriage) onto the empty needles immediately outside the knitting (and towards the carriage). Then move stitches 8 and 7 into the gap left (which crosses them over stitches 6 and 5), repeat all along the bed. Knit 5 rows, and then do the same crosses but in the opposite direction. This produces S cables, because 20 divides by 4, so you are always moving the same stitches back and forth.

My second attempt was over 18 stitches - same again, but at the end of the cross you will have two stitches and a gap of two needles. I just moved them in so as not to generate a ladder. Knit 5 rows, and cable towards the carriage every time, and then your crosses will always be in the correct direction. This produces an attractive celtic braid, and because 18 doesn't divide by 4 you are now alternating the needles you're moving.

I decided this might make quite a nice hairband, if I crossed every 3 rows instead of 5, so made this - somewhat pressed, to make it lie flat, it's now waiting for some elastic! I started and ended with about 20 rows of stocking stitch at T6 and then cabled for 108 rows - luckily I can figure out my three times table this high, though 81 always feels like a prime number to me for some reason...

This was a short attempt to work a 6 x 6 cable, using the ribber "press off" technique to generate extra localised yarn before the cross. In the book one is supposed to move six stitches over 2, knit 2 rows, and repeat a further two times. I think perhaps I didn't add enough needles on the ribber bed (the book indicates two isolated stitches, perhaps it should be read as 3 stitches together?) because there was no way I could cross 6 over 2, but I managed 6 over 1, 6 times. I think the technique needs another attempt, because clearly it was working! I didn't take a picture of the back but you get horizontal "floats" of the poor, tortured stitch that is moved.

And finally, the rhino - Bertie (Roberta), a colleague's daughter's toy, needed some pyjamas, so I ended up drafting a pattern for some by hand. Not quite the rever collar I had hoped for, but she's a very strange shape and "modern" jersey pyjamas would have been permanent, owing to the size of her head!

I've also got a new definition of annoyed - knitting up to the second buttonhole on a top-down cardigan (Drops Agnes), some 4", only to realise that said buttonholes are on the "wrong" side for a woman. Oh well, it was a good test run of the pattern I suppose!!

Current mood: annoyed

KCG AGM 2024

noreply@blogger.com (steel breeze) — Thu, 19 Sep 2024 16:20:00 +0000

Well, time is gradually healing my mood, though grieving for a friendship so cruelly dropped will take a little longer. So... work is tricky at the moment, as I teeter between anger and avoidance, distrust and pity. But my sleep has improved and I guess time will cure all in the end, one way or another. I get more independance to travel to work with better music (and I actually get in on time now, which I prefer!) so I'm focussing on the positives! I did accidentally talk myself into getting a new laptop, although in terms of RAM it's identical and so far it's refused to let me install anything on it beyond Teams and Outlook so I'm not hopeful!

I took a friend down to the annual Knitting and Crochet Guild AGM weekend, this year in High Leigh Hall, Hoddesdon. The drive down was ok until we got to the M25 and the A roads in London during rush hour. I had forgotten the insane and impatient car drivers seem to congregate further south! Anyway, we made it with about half an hour to spare before the opening meeting and then off to the dining room for a very nice dinner (I had beef curry). The after dinner speaker was Vicki Haffenden - alas we were both very tired so made directly for bed afterwards, which is when I discovered I'd be using my ensuite without a lightbulb!

Saturday morning we had a keynote speaker, Sue Maton, and then the AGM. After lunch, I had a class with Vicki all about holding position - we had a two-sided handout but alas I could really have used instructions for some of the samples she'd brought. It was interesting, but I may skip machine knitting classes next year because I'm not sure I learnt anything new (I managed to mess up anyway!). We were interrupted by enthusiastic crafters wanting to pick over the yarn amnesty (leftover knitting and croche items donated to raise funds for the Guild). After dinner another talk by Lily Kate France. Again we were too tired to hang around for drinks, which is a pity.

Sunday morning (having slept badly) I did a quick walk around the lake, after being waylaid for various other reasons. It's a very nice site (though I never did find the cave!). After checking out and loading up the car, we had a show and tell which was amazing - so much inspiration! After lunch I had a go at "lacis crochet" with Helen Jordan, a very interesting circular crochet pattern that would make amazing shawls, and after lunch there was a raffle. I didn't win anything but I was quite relieved because a few of the prizes were tickets to Ally Pally and I've already got a ticket for that! All too soon it was over - we decided to take A roads back, which may or may not have been a good idea. At one point the heavens opened so heavily that people were pulling off the road. I kept going (but slowly) and after twenty scary minutes we were back in full sunshine. Yep, it's definitely autumn!

Current mood: moody