Matilda and Wovember

This weekend, I went to see Matilda the Musical at the Cambridge Theatre in London with my family. It was my choice - I had heard that it had received lots of plaudits and when asked which musical we should see as a family (my family + my uncle, aunt and cousins) then I suggested Matilda. So I approached with some trepidation - I would feel responsible if it was dull, boring or 'unsuitable'.

Thankfully, it was none of those things. I loved the book by Roald Dahl as a child and identified strongly with the clever little girl who enjoyed reading books (mercifully, I didn't identify with the unappreciated, unwanted daughter aspect of the character). The musical really captured the spirit of the books - riotous fun and just a little subversive. Having entered the theatre not knowing any of the songs, I've been happily humming 'When I Grow Up' and 'Miracle' since we left. The set design is really imaginative - full of books, rising desks, swings and things to climb up, and had plenty to look at during the interval. If you can get to London, then go to see it! It really is good - as a group of adults, we thought that any children aged 8+ would love it. There are some loud bits, sudden flashing lights, cruel parents and a scary headteacher so younger children might not cope.


It's also Wovember, so my Google Reader has been filled with lots of pictures of sheep and woolen objects over the past week. Wovember was established last year to celebrate real wool and real sheep. Personally, I knit a lot with wool but wear little of it in bought garments (the jumper I'm wearing today is 60% cotton and 40% polyester). However, wool is so much more evocative and connected to the lives of real people and animals than polyester. As a knitter and crocheter, I'm a little more keyed in than the average person to the idea that different breeds of sheep make different types of wool for different purposes, but I can't tell you the last time that I actually touched a live sheep (I was probably 8 and at a Rare Breeds Farm) or really got up close to one. What I've really enjoyed from the Wovember posts is the opportunity to get closer (via the internet) to sheep and where my wool comes from.

Pretty (posh) Yarn

At the moment, I'm in the midst of revision for my final university exams. It's scary how quickly it's been from a trembling fresher to a trembling finalist. So much of my time is spent rereading notes, writing essay plans and avoiding actually doing work by knitting, browsing online. However, updating the blog feels like a public confession that I am not actually working at that time, so it has been neglected (much better to procrastinate in secret?). I've also been working on projects that don't lend themselves well to blog updates - I could do plenty of pictures of my half-finished cardigan, lamenting that the second batch of wool I ordered was from a different dye-lot, but I like completeness and so have been holding out until it was finished.

On Sunday, however, I managed to be online at the hallowed time of 8pm - also known as the Posh Yarn update time. Like Wollmeise, Posh Yarn posts limited stock that disappears quickly. First, I attempted to purchase a couple of skeins of Sylvia 4-ply in the Land of my Fathers - a green colourway, with the intention of using it to make Esmée #3 (my ideal would be to make an Esmée out of Posh Yarn's Esmé base, but there wasn't any in the update this week). However, trying to buy three skeins proved too much and they were gone by the time that I had filled in my details. So I went back, took a deep breath and chose this:




It's Posh Yarn Sylvia 2-ply in colourway 'The Street Named Regret'. It's very pretty. It's also lace. And has silk in it. I've never used either before. It feels lovely, but I fear that I may die of boredom winding 875yds.



I think I want to make a shawl with it (once I have finished the cardigan). I usually choose projects based on the circular needles I have, so does anyone have any suggestions for this yarn using 2.5mm, 3.25mm or 5mm needles (or any crochet hook, sizes 3mm-6mm)?

Endellion Shawl

This is a project on a Tuesday. Not a tool.




It was a struggle to photograph the entirety of the shawl, but hopefully you can build up a patchwork picture from the photos that I post. I took lots of photographs of the edging, because I think that it is quite beautiful, less of the garter stitch centre.

The Endellion shawl is a hybrid project - a garter stitch centre, based on the centre to the Multnomah Shawl by Kate Flagg, and then a crocheted flowery edging based upon the edging to the Midsummer Night's Shawl by Lisa Naskrent. It used one skein of Posh Yarn's Pamela in a colourway which I think was called 'Writing My Memoirs', but I'm not quite sure. Suffice to say it is dark blue, with 5% Stellina sparkle incorporated into the yarn. Initially, I was somewhat wary of a 'sparkly' yarn (they seem ubiquitous in UK indie dyers at the moment), but the sparkle isn't very obvious - it just gives it something a little magical when it catches the light, rather than looking like it has an obvious plastic strand in the yarn.



The intention with doing a hybrid knit-crochet project was to get the most out of both crafts - I wanted it to be densely stitched in the centre - hence the garter stitch, but lacy at the edge. I also wanted to take advantage of the low yardage and easier drape that you can achieve with dense stitches in knitting, so that there was more yarn left for the lacy crocheted flowers at the edge. I also wanted something slightly mindless at the beginning.

If you want to recreate the Endellion Shawl, then this is a rough guide: you'll need to knit the Multnomah centre until you have about 220 sts, then switch to looking at the Midsummer Night's pattern. I did three rows (because I hadn't got enough sts, but just do as many rows as you need to get the right number) of dc, adding increases at the centre like on the pattern (the chart is super helpful). Then I did Rows 5-7 of the edging twice, if you look atht the picture above, then you'll be able to see how I added extra increases at the centre.



This was a fun project- slightly mindless with all the garter stitch, but a great piece of problem solving to work out how to make the edging work. It also reminded me how awful I am at guessing how much yarn is left in a ball - I only did the edging once as I thought that I was about to run out, so I bound off. Then I realised that I had a sizable ball left so I decided to keep crocheting until I ran out - which was almost exactly after I'd done a whole repeat of Rows 5-7. Perfect!

Yarn

This is the yarn that I want to use to make a shawl. Wollmeise 80/20 Sockenwolle in We're Different Pfefferminz Prinz. But first I have to wind it. I have an armchair, which has the perfect back size for winding (much better than using tuna tins or glasses to wrap the yarn round) but 500 yards is still intimidating.

The problem...

with buying pretty yarn off the internet in hanks is that I have to hand-wind it. Which is fine. Except currently I have no compulsion to do so. I could wind the lovely Madelinetosh in Jade, which is for my half-finished Road to Bruges scarf, or I could wind the luscious EasyKnits' semi-solids in Midnight and start the birthday Lila that my Mother has commissioned. They'll both be lovely to crochet, I'm sure. It's just the thought of winding that is prompting me into procrastination :(

Alice II

A little update on how Alice is getting on. Mum came to visit a few weeks ago, and so we visited the sewing/knitting show in town and I purchased some buttons. Thus Alice no longer has scary scraps as eyes! I then made a knob of the cream wool as a nose, and used some burgundy for a mouth. I'm still not sure about the burgundy, but I tried the pink (same as hat) and that seemed to be worse, so burgundy it is!

After having the head sitting on my desk for a few weeks, I finally attached it to the body and styled the hair. I've decided, now that I can double crochet, to make the dress 

but that now seems like a long term plan. I'm fairly happy with the way that Alice is now!

Alice looking pensive:

Close up of the face, especially the button eyes. They don't quite match the clothing, but I fell in love with the colour.

Back of the hair, as an Alice I did consider putting her hair in an Alice band before settling on a double ponytail thing. Totally escapist - I always wanted a doll with whom I could fiddle with the hair in this way as a child. 

Striped Scarf

I really like this scarf. It's a little short, and thin, but the colours are quite lovely in person. The pink is a little redder than that shown here.

How it was made:

Hayfield Bonus DK - Purple

Stylecraft Ltd Life DK - 2301 Rose

5mm (H) hook

Chain 150, turn, single crochet into each of chains, turn, the same, so that there are 3 rows. Change to other colour, do three rows, and so on. I ended up 6 stripes, though more could be done easily.

150 is a little small - if want a longer scarf then I would go with 200-250. But I do love it and think it's a little more appropriate for the spring weather that is beginning to creep into England. As I expected, the rose colour Life DK was nicer to crochet with than the Hayfield, as it is 25% wool, 75% acrylic, compared with Hayfield's 100% (but that is so cheap!). I am going to make a beanie in the same stripy style once I've finished my current amigurumi project.

Also, the doll now has eyes and a face. I am trying to decide whether she needs more hair, or if I can sew it straight on the body.