It's that time again

Hurricane predicted in the north (although in the south we can expect sunny intervals), but it's definitely time to start thinking about staying warm in the cold 75% of the year.
So did you knit a 5 Degree Woolly yet?
Do you fancy having a go?
Assemble your leftover yarns, dig out your thickest needles and get ready to knit.
The patterns are ready to download at www.4160Tuesdays.com.
Go there and get them, with my blessing. And if you fancy a bit of a knitathon, let's see if we can get a group together and polish off a woolly in a day. Start with a hat; you can do one of those in half an hour, including time to make a coffee.

How to choose your yarn

Good morning, on this beautiful spring day here in Ealing. Here's a short before and after film about picking a selection of yarns from my stash, how to get a good blend of colours, and what they look like when I'd knitted them.

The film: Ethical Fashion in the Age of Austerity

Here's a short film of what it was like at the V&A Museum of Childhood last week, at the 5 Degree Woolly workshop which was more like a seminar/woolshop combo. At the end of the evening, one small girl learned to cast on with big needles, then taught her dad. Bless her little cotton socks.

The Papered Parlour's Wonderful Workshops

It was The Papered Parlour who organised last night's Ethical Fashion in the Age of Austerity. And by jove, they did us proud. Over 900 people turned up, including Betty Jackson who I am delighted to report took copies of my free knitting patterns. I wish we hadn't been too busy to talk to her, but word had spread that we were selling balls of yarn at 50p a go (including some rather nice kid mohair) so at that point we were mobbed. The Papered Parloured do all kinds of wonderful workshops, from repurposing clothes to making silver jewellery. Get on their mailing list.

Last night, one woman pointed out that to knit a full on 5 Degree Woolly would cost around £200, but that's only if you buy yourself full price new yarn for the project. That would be entirely missing the point. This is the project your guilty yarn stash has been waiting for, and if you don't have quite enough to finish it out, may I please point you in the direction of the equally lovely Yeoman Yarns and their bargain boxes. Click on the bit that says "Knitting Need Not Be Expensive" and you'll discover that they are quite right.

Not everyone has enough in their stash to make the whole 5 Degree Woolly, but there's really no need to splash out on expensive yarn to complete one. That's not the point. Go online and get some bargain cones from the end of a batch of knitwear, go to car boot sales, pop your head around the door of your local charity shop. Whatever you add to your yarn mix, they always seem to come out looking OK.  

The Patterns - Ready!

Hello,
Quick link to the patterns, which I've put up at the 4160Tuesdays.com site.
Get them here. (Click on the top right hand tab "5 Degree Woolly" and you'll get to the page with links to the hat, socks and original woolly.
Let me know how they work out and send the pictures.

5 Degree Woolly 2.AVI

5 Degree Woolly 1.AVI

Two Short Handknitted Films

I've made two films, not because I really wanted to, but because YouTube is now the second biggest search engine so you have to be there, don't you?
Watch 5 Degree Woolly 1 first, or it makes no sense. It was supposed to be al one film. As it says, you've got to start somewhere, and if you've got no budget, you start in your front room with your Flip on a  tripod. If you laugh, I'll forgive you, as long as you also start knitting. Let me know if you want the patterns.

The Patterns

Rightie-ho knitters. I've finally transcribed the patterns for the big woolly and the socks. For the moment, I can't work out how to get the pfds up there for you to download them, but if you do want them, just email me: sarah@littlemax.co.uk.
I'll get them too you.

I'll also have them at Ethical Fashion in the Age of Austerity (see below) on 3rd March 2011 at the V&A Museum of Childhood.

(If you'd like to contribute to the cause, you can drop some cash into the PayPal account, same email address. If you like but you don't have to.)

We're Going Live on 3rd March

How exciting is this?

On 3rd March 2011 at the V&A's Museum of Childhood, the 5 Degree Woolly Project is having a little launch as part of the Papered Parlour's Ethical Fashion in the Age of Austerity event.

Honest, despite the sense of foreboding in the title, it'll be fun. And some really famous people are coming too.

The Papered Parlour's chum's mum has a stash of wool in her attic and she's giving it away for our workshop, so if you want to come along and start your own 5 Degree Woolly, this will be a very good time to kick it off.

Here's a bit of info on the event.

And here's where to find the V&A MoC

I was so happy when I got their email, I nearly cried!

I'll be bringing along free patterns (and then I'll also get around to putting them up here for if you're not within travelling distance of Bethnal Green.)

Meet The Slockers

Using up a bit more stash on a pair of Slockers

OK lads and lasses, but probably more lasses than lads, I put out a request last week to ask for ideas on what to knit next. Sarah J. Hunter and I came up with the Slocker, which is like a slipper but sock shaped and very thick. This was the start.
And this is the end:

I know it looks as if I'm standing on the ceiling, but that was because I took the picture myself while wearing them and doing a bit of yoga. I've got them on now (over those socks you see) and I can report that it's so toasty in there that it seems to be keeping my whole self warm. I'm only wearing two layers of yoga kit and for me, that's not normally enough of a dull September afternoon.

I am not going to take you up on your suggestions for matching knickers; that would be a bit ticklish.

I wrote down what I did as I went along, so I can post a pattern. But I used 8mm two-ended needles (as you can see in the top pic) and two strands of kid mohair, one ordinary thickness mohair, one cotton, one double knit wool and one black wool thing I got from Texere that's quite tough, so I can wear them around the house. If you've got a sock pattern, and you know what your'e doing, adapt it to fit and get on with it.
Be careful on shiny wood floors. I might stick or stitch a leather sole on to stop them being quite so slippery, but the floors are getting a good polish.

Excellent for the end of a yoga class when you don't want to put shoes on (or aren't allowed) but don't want to get chilly toes.

FINISHED! Part 2

Here I am then, in classic knitting pattern pose.
I took this on the self timer, running from one end of the room - where the phone was propped on the irnoning board - to the other, because I had 10 seconds to get into the frame, so I got very warm indeed.
I can confirm that its does the trick; it's way too hot to wear at the moment.

I weighed it and it comes in at 1.8kg, so that's 36 x 50g balls, or the equivalent, that you're going to need to get started on your own. It's a fair amount of yarn, but if you're reading this, you've probably got that much in your stash.

I might consider taking orders.
But I'd rather you knitted your own.

FINISHED!

Too tired to post up pics tonight, but the woolly is now sewn up and ready to wear.
I'll create a proper pattern. I also want to weigh it so I can give a rough idea of how much yarn you have to assemble to complete one. Get knitting; it's autumn and you'll be needing one soon.

Long back and sides

I've finished the back, but as it looks almost identical to the front, I've not bothered photographing the whole thing. My friend Bella came round today to get some help with her maths homework, and while she was getting on with it, I finished a sleeve, and here it is.
As you'll observe, it's a bit different from the front
and back, but that's the general idea. (The back is on the left of the pictures.) As you use up one yarn, you attach another one, and I happened to have three balls of a pink/blue/grey super chunky Rowan sitting about annoying me. In they went.

Sleeves.
I cast on 15 (meant to do 16, then realised I hadn't) and knitted 10 rows in single rib. That was just about long enough so I switched to alternative knit and purl rows.
Rows 13 & 15: increased one stitch at both ends - 19 stitches.
Row 19, 23, 27 etc, increased one stitch at both ends.
I kept going until it was long enough. For me that was 40 rows in all. Then I cast off 27 stitches.
(Measure the front to see how far it comes down your arms, then knit so that the sleeves are the right length and width.)

Now to sew it up. And next, I think I'll do big fluffy indoor socks.

A Woolly of Two Halves

That was a football pun, by the way.
Commentators are given to saying "Well it's a game of two halves," meaning that the first one can be very different from the second. And so it is with 5 Degree Woollies.
Here's the front.

(I promise I was smiling behind there.)
I knitted 15 rows of rib, 50 rows of knitting, cast off 10 stitches for each shoulder and kept 16 for the cosy high neck, then knitted another 10 rows ad cast off the 16 neck stitches.

Next: the back. That's going to be the same size, but will change shade again as I start to run out of some of the yarns.

If you don't have much else to do, you could knit one of these in a day. I was about to speed up when it turned into autumn last week. Now that summer's back, I'm not in so much of a rush.

Goddam Clothing Moths

On Wednesday I took the woolly out of the bag to show my friends, Angela and Bella, and out flew a moth. That bad news is that it's too late; the thing has already laid its eggs and now they'll hatch and tiny crawly things will eat a chunk of my sweater. As it's so huge, I don't think it will compromise the structure, but they can destroy 4-ply.

My vegan friends believe that it's Mother Nature's revenge for exploiting sheep, goats and silk moths; clothing moths don't find cotton or synthetics that tasty so they don't bother with them. Bella, who isn't vegan, was particularly distressed as clothing moths ate holes in the socks I knitted her last year; they are rampant in north London, annoyingly greedy little creatures that they are. (Clothing moths, not vegans.)

I use essential oils to keep them away; they hate patchouli oil which is why it was originally imported from India with pashminas in previous centruries. They don't like clove bud, cinnamon and lots of other beautiful scents. Auroville do some wardobe packs of powdered essential oils to hang up next to your best duffle coat and to pack in with your woollies. They are from an Indian co-operative and smell lovely (to us, not moths).

I've also bought some sticky things from Manufactum; these are 15cm square stickers on which you place a small patch scented with clothing moth pheromone. The creatures then hurl themselves at it and stick fast; a messy death follows. Sorry, but it serves you right.

Apparently they don't like light. Last year my bedroom window blind was shut all winter (Velux problems). I'm hoping that now I've mended it with Sugru, the occasional blast of sunshine with keep them away.
Any other brilliant solutions? Please share I can't wait to hear.

Random (Knitting) Distractions

In between work on the big woolly, I had a go at some mittens. The pattern is in Erika Knight's Simple Knitting, my current favourite knitting book. I made them for a friend who put in a request, from some pink stuff (cotton mix?) that arrived in an amazing bargain bag from those nice women at DBNY.
The thumbs have come out a bit wide, but they are lovely and warm. So does Michelle get them, or should I keep my first try and see if I can do better? I'm not sure that she'd want flappy thumbs...

Half Way up the Front

"It's mine now."
Mocha, the cat.

Our cat likes my work. This summer she has been using my first woolly as a bed, and has tried to lay claim to this one too. My fault; I have now put it away in the orange and pink beach bag (free with suntan lotion)  in the foreground.

As you see, I've made some progress with the 2010 5 Degree Woolly. I knitted 16 rows of K1P1 rib, but that was only because I forgot to stop and switch to knit rows and pearl rows.

Once I remembered I switched. (No point pulling stitches out if you don't have to. I just decided to make it longer.) I've now added 32 plain rows. I changed colour at one point as one of my balls ran out. I liked the green flecks, so I added in some apple green mohair; you can see the second hank on the end of the chaise.

In the background there's a tie I'm knitting from some rayon/raw silk yarn. We'll see how that turns out too.
Here's how the 5 Degree Woolly looks in detail:

You can see where I changed colour about 6 rows after the rib.
That's the whole point really. Just use up what's handy.

At some point soon, I've got to decide what to do with the sleeves and neckline, but for this one, the first (technically the second but the first I'm knitting in public), I think I'll stick with straight lines up the sides and a very simple polo neck. If you're more technical, feel free to adapt yours.

This is about two evenings' worth of knitting. If you've ever been put off because you thought it would take you a year to create a reasonably sized chunk of knitwear, I hope this will cheer you along the way. So, raid your nan's yarn stash, get a pair of HUGE needles and join in. Please let me know when you do.

A Good Book for Learners (and Others)

 I'd like to recomend a great book, if I may.
Amazon send me books to review every now and again. I choose from a list and as long as I keep writing they keep sending. (To get invited, you have to review a lot of books and get a chunk of "helpful" votes.) One day they sent me this one: Simple Kintting by Erika Knight:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Simple-Knitting-Erika-Knight/dp/1844008150/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1282136032&sr=8-1
I do think that the best way to learn to knit is to sit next to someone who can rescue things if they go wrong while you both chant "in, round, through, off". But if you already learned and need a reminder, or want a project or two to stretch your skills, get Erika's book.
I've been knitting the mittens, almost finished, will post picture shortly.
Now back to my needles.

The first swatch

Here you see my test swatch, 15mm needles, 10 stitches and I decided that 7 rows were about enough to show me where it's going.
At this rate, I've decided on 36 stitches per row to get me a bit sweater that I can throw over whatever else I am wearing at the time.
Next, I'll pull this out and start again. I've a bad habit of starting a sweater without doing the sample swatch, and I'm forever knitting things which I drown in. This time - because I'm doing it in public - I'm behaving myself. Knit in haste, repent at leisure!