OMG... How much?

Right, this year for the first time in ages, we are not going to the Knitting  & Stitching Show at Ally Pally.  There are a couple of reasons for this, am not sure if I mentioned it but recently both my brother-in law and my sister had mini strokes, TIAs or transient ischaemic attacks... in fact if it had not been for my bil having one first, my sister would not have realised what was happening when she had hers.  Both of them had a bit of tingling in their hands and an inability to hold a mug, feeling a tad odd and bit headachey.  

A previous matron of the hospital was in the stroke ward at the same time, nothing escaped her beady eye!

He had been on an aspirin regime which could well explain why there was little if no damage... however my sister was not so lucky, her carotid artery was totally bunged up (think mega amounts of sediment in your central heating!) which meant a whole different ball game.  Firstly, she was not allowed out of the ward... had to stay on flat surfaces - no stairs, lest any clots be released if she bumped about, the anaesthetists who could undertake this were on hols so it was almost two weeks later that they operated.  She had a carotid endarterectomy, yep, they removed that section of her carotid... you know the one that spurts everywhere in horror movies and put in a new piece.  She recovered really well thanks to the magnificent work of the stroke unit at Southend... if she had not had this scare, then she would most definitely have had a major stroke within the year.  So please, when you see those ads and articles about the signs and symptoms of strokes, just take the time to read them... it's just about thinking FAST.  She is back driving now but K&S is a long day, so maybe next year...

The show opens today and yes, I do kind of regret not going but to be honest a flippant comment made on Twitter has made me think... do you know that I cannot tell you how much I have in my various stashes?  I can tell you that I put 160+ fat quarters in a picnic hamper a few weeks ago.  I have a separate hamper for Christmas... a humongous plastic container for half yards or more... and at the back of the dining room lurks an even bigger trunk in which I know there is at least 4 yards of cream and gold dog tooth check wool fabric from the early 90s and an early visit to Ally Pally.  Tell me, what possessed me?

I aspire to sort my collection into this sort of  order

Not sure that we should tackle wool as it is pervasive, you think you have it locked down... but no, it hides in small spaces (that would be behind and under the sofas), it can literally roll anywhere and it does.  I have found it in every room in my house with the exception of the bathroom but frankly that is just a matter of time.  I love going through it and remembering where I bought it... and yes there is an Ally Pally novelty yarn  that I bought which, well honestly I must have been hypnotised by aliens... it is so mortifying that I could not even offer it up for a swap let alone take it surreptitiously to a charity shop, as even they have standards!

If only own stash was so well ordered and coherent

And do you know what, we haven't even addressed kit, like sewing boxes, cutting mats and rulers, buttons, ribbons, interfacing, tissue, hoops, threads, patterns, knitting needles, crochet hooks and no, don't go there with books, look I told you don't go there... need I go on?  I am sure there is an answer, it's just that I am not sure I will like it.  And do you know that I have just realised, I have not touched on embroidery, tapestry, felting, Hardanger...

I long to own something like this... memories of Brightwells in Southend,  the Grace Bros of fabric shops! 

So there it is the reasons I am not at Ally Pally this year, mostly because over the years I have accumulated the contents of the main hall and they are scattered about the house, in every nook, cranny and crevice... mind you what about under the stairs at the back, now there's a thought!

Ally Pally and I get to meet Ms Epstein

On Saturday my sister and I went for our annual pilgrimage to Ally Pally to check out the trends at the Knitting and Stitching show, despite the roadworks delaying us for an hour we were soon parked, onto a courtesy bus and standing outside the entrance. 

Now my sister... that is my older sister, the one with the bus pass and who tried to pass me off as an OAP concesssion when we went to the pictures, had managed to buy two sets of tickets... so I am really proud of her generosity, she found two people in the ticket queue and gave the the tickets for free, and even better for it was one of the ladies' birthday!  Pay it forward people.

We are methodical in our approach, no aisle is left undiscovered and every stand gets the once over from our eagle eyes.  First on the list was a pinking wheel for her rotary cutter, I think she might be after the Leigh-on-sea rag wreath market from me!

And then it was looking at the fabrics:

Now this is how I dream it will be...

But in reality, it is a bit of a rugby scrum, albeit a polite one, and while I am at it, is it really necessary to bring your buggy to this event... buggy-sized kiddies do not enjoy it, nor does this adult who objects to having her ankles gouged by careless yummy mummies.

I spoke to a lovely lady who was trying out an amazing sub £4k free style machine and we swapped tips, apparently when I can sign my name and it can be read I have mastered freestyle and I told her that if she discovered her wheels were blunt, fold up some baking foil and putting it on your cutting mat, slice through it about 20 times, it also works on scissors!

Then we went round the corner and I saw Nicky Epstein the GMC stand, I took out my camera and said to my sister that I was going to to say hello... the chauffeur legged it and hid on the next stand.  Then I was really brave and asked if I could take her picture:

And she was utterly charming, it was akin to Enid Blyton turning up on your birthday when you were 10 years old.  She gave me a free pattern from my fave book, a book mark and badge which I will give away to anyone who leaves a comment on here before I next post at the weekend - names to be drawn from the sock I am knitting.  She also gave me a hug and a kiss but I am keeping those!  I thanked her for her posts on Ravelry and her e-mails and even though she pretended to know me, I know that I am just one of thousands of her fans but she still made me feel very special.

One of the exhibits that was truly fascinating was the travelling exhibition from MODA, the Museum of Domestic Arts who were showing pieces of artwork from the Silver Studios which became dress fabrics.  Little is known of the designers who were truly gifted but the vibrancy of the watercolours and the adverts for silk tea dresses from the 30s were inspirational.  They explained that elements of these paintings are used by fabric designers today but I think it would be wonderful to see these fabrics back in production.

Sadly, I did check before I left the house that morning if I had won the £101m in the lottery so contented myself with a beautiful skein of silk yarn instead of buying everything.  However as we left, the pensioner sister presented me with a Clover applique iron which I had been eyeing up, she managed to buy it while I was chatting to the free hand embroidery lady and I did not notice.  Have I mentioned how young my sister is looking?

All Taped Up?

Not so long ago, when you went to the wool shop you would just find various weights of wool to knit with... 3 ply, 4ply, DK, Aran, Chunky but in the last few years there has been an explosion in fancy yarns particularly the tape yarns.


I first came across tape yarns at the Knitting and Stitching Show at Ally Pally in the 1990s when I bought this knitting kit from KnitWits in Cumbria (if anyone knows what happened to them, let me know, I loved them).  This was knitting on the edge, it was a cotton tape which knitted up quickly to create crunchy summer styles but still knitted in the conventional way.

No, they are not dropped stitches... and yes, I will sew buttons on soon, I promise!

Then Rico, pushed the boundaries even further with CanCan from which you could make fabulous flouncy scarves with block or jewel like graduated colours hit the shops.  However you did not use the yarn as you did before, you cast on by opening out the yarn and literally sticking your needle about a quarter of inch below the top of the tape, then moving along about two inches you did the same again -  no thumb method, continental, cable, long tail end, this was new order - stab and grab!  Then to knit with it, you used placed you right needle through the left stitch to knit but instead knitting the whole of the yarn you stabbed a hole two inches further with your right needle and pulled it through as a knit stitch so that the rest of your yarn created the flounce and not only could you knit with it, you could crochet too.  As an experienced knitter, it drove me up the wall as I could not thread the yarn through my fingers but new knitters love it with the exaggerated movements to wind the yarn around the needles.

More yarns followed from Rico - Loopy and from Katia - Triana, living up to its name where the tape is a series of loops sewn together.  

Like CanCan, you cast on by putting your needle through the holes of each loop along the top of the yarn and then knit in garter stitch through every second stitch over just seven stitches to make a brilliant narrow flouncy scarf with a great lacy effect, these scarves tended to be much narrower and wound several times round the neck.

And the latest I have found is Woolcraft - Tango, which forms a very closely looped jabot style scarf but yet again an entirely new form of tape.

I worked up this scarf in front of the telly in just a couple of hours, I can just imagine if peeking out from a black coat this Winter.  And this is my contribution to HandMade Monday, so don't forget to take a look and see what everyone else has been up to.

If you wondered if I finished my socks from last week, they can be found in the blog below this.  However I happened to be passing the LYS, having walked up to the bus stop and spent 10 mins waiting for the bus and 20 mins sitting on it... so like I say, just passing when I found some super Alpaca sock yarn which will make such lovely bed socks.  It is deliciously soft and I am trying something called butterfly stitch which took and inordinate amount of swearing and ripping back for me to work out how it was done and then I realised I was over-complicating things - KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid).

I will let you know how they go, and I promise the applique tutorial will be here shortly when I am happy with the pics.