Loops and Groups

This time last week I was sitting on the South Bank outside of the National Theatre at a gathering of I Knit London with my friend Charlotte (who has posted info about our entertainment for the evening on cfknits). This knitting group was founded in February by Gerrard Allt who works for Water Aid and who set up the Knit a River Campaign. That evening I set about making my first blue 15cm square for the 'river'and have since started my second. I am hoping to make the meeting next week which I think will be in a pub, hopefully with a beer garden. I have also made contact with a group of N16 knitters who meet on Monday nights in a Stoke Newington pub, but at the moment my Mondays are really busy and I have not been able to make any of the meetings yet ;-( Knitting is such a social activity, even at home knitting on my lonesome I keep in touch with fellow knitters through my blog.

I have also been busy sewing as I joined the sew i knit sew along to complete a top by July 15th. I thought I had plenty of time but I only just completed it on time. So here it is: the pattern is simplicity 4123 with capped sleeves option, fabric is called bright ditsy and was purchased from John Lewis.

saturday market bag

I am making the Saturday Market Bag from magknits June Edition designed by Jodie Danenberg. It is quite a quick knit but it took a little time and a few rips before I began to recognise the anatomy of the stitches and become confident with the pattern. Once I cracked this it was a breeze - though the chunky 10mm addi turbo circulars were a bit cumbersome.
I have already completed the entire main bag section using Rowan all seasons cotton in Jazz. This yarn is 60% cotton, 40% acrylic/microfibre, in aran weight. It has worked out quite nicely and I am going to knit a strap for it as pictured in magknits. I have just received my 6mm circulars in the post so I can do just that tonight!-) Jodie has posted pictures of completed bags by fellow knitters on her blog. There is a really lovely blue one with bamboo oval handles. So now I have started a pink version in Rowan Cotton rope that will have said bamboo handles. While I am knitting this one up I thought I would post a photo of the stitches for reference.















This photo shows the cast on row and completed first row of the pattern...
Row 1 - k1,*yo, sl1, k1, yo, psso the knit st and following yo
The needle is held as if to begin the second row of the pattern.
The pattern is easy to recognise as the yarn loops over the first two stitches of the pattern - the third stitch is the yo (yarn over) that you drop off the needle on row 2 and row 4 of the pattern.


This picture shows the same stitch across the circular needles.
It can get a bit tricky when you have to push the stitches up onto the needle but as long as you make sure the yo is after the first two stitches it should be plain sailing.
Once the yo's have been dropped off the needle on row 2 and 4 the stitches hang off of the needles as normal.

needle fodder

What a week... yarnage a plenty...


Yesterday I visited StashYarns in Putney on Upper Richmond Road, SW15 with my knitting pal Charlotte. This was our first visit to stash yarns. The store opened on June 6th this year, I noticed a lot of positive blogchatter and tempting photos about this friendly little store and couldn't resist a visit. Charlotte and I had to be back in central London for 12.00 so we arrived at the shop as soon as the doors opened at 11.00 - our visit was short but very sweet :-) I bought a copy of Knit1, the art edition, and my very first skein of Lambs Pride in Blue Heirloom. It's yummy. The lady in the store was very helpful and I got to try on a beautiful on the bias shawl that had a ladder pattern produced by dropping stitches. Stash Yarns has a great selection of yarns, addi needles and lots of magazines and tempting books too. The range of lambs pride in stock is impressive, the colours are really vibrant and I am now on the look out for more worsted weight projects for a repeat visit.


During the week I nipped into John Lewis on Oxford Street to buy some Rowan cotton rope in Cyclamen, (shade 071) for another Saturday Market bag as seen in June edition Magknits. I started a blue one after my trip to Chester, pictured here in Rowan all seasons cotton (Jazz).


And... in Chester last weekend I bought a skein of Meilenweit Magico (colourway 2523) sock yarn by lanna grossa, 2.5mm addi bamboo dpns with teddy needle protectors, a pair of 10mm addi circular needles and a skein of Rowan all seasons cotton, both for my market bag project bag as pictured above this photo. I bought all these goodies from stash fine yarns. My nan always buys her yarn supplies from the Chester Market and I was not to be disappointed there either. Here I picked up the contrasting Scarlet 09 and olive 69, King Cole Merino Blend dk required for the BIG1. A bargain at two quid a skein, that's 40p cheaper than one of the online stores I spotted, but unfortuantley the main colour, Mink, wasn't in stock ;-(



In the market I also bought some Wendy Melody (172 green and 174 red) - I have plans for an evening shawl project using elogated stitch.




Needles locked and loaded... Now I need to get myself some of those fancy project progress bars to monitor my new projects...

Stashing it up in Chester

Throngs of people in Chester City Centre, originally uploaded by lloydi.

I am travelling again... a little less exotic than Athens this time... I am visiting my family in Cheshire, then off to Manchester for a few days for business. But sadly I don't have any knitting projects on the go at the moment to take on my travels. A little problem that won't take too long to rectify... So, Saturday my sister and I went to Chester on a shopping expedition, me to check out potential yarnage opportunites and Ellen to hunt down some crafy paper supplies. The wonderful world of Hobby Craft was on our list of places to visit, along with Stash Fine Yarns on Godstall Lane, that I had seen an advert for in Simply Knitting and Chester market (where my nan buys most of her wool -the stall in the middle of the hall from the man with the little moustache).

A very productive day was had by all :-) more soon...