Needle-felted narwhal? Why not.

So here’s the thing: my partner and I have been together for seven years as of today. I know, I know. Seven years, we’re old, etc. We’ve actually known one another since I was 16 and that was nearly 14 years ago, but let’s not think about that.

Hey, I just noticed we’ve been together half of the time we’ve known one another now. That’s pretty cool.

When we met I was still living with my mum, though shortly after we started talking I moved in with my dad. It was a terrible time all round; I was badly bullied at school and unaware (at the time) that I was struggling with what would turn out to be OCD. Having someone like my partner come into my life was pretty cool since we had so much in common and spoke every day that we could.

Of course, it took us seven years to get together, but that’s what you get when you live thousands of miles apart. Now we live in the same country – the same apartment, no less! – and we are happy.

To celebrate we went to the Science Centre in Toronto and then went out for dinner. We also bought 6 books at Indigo, because why not celebrate with stories about human-eating spiders? Today, our actual anniversary, we haven’t done much. MacDonalds all day breakfast and a wander around some furniture stores before an impressive storm pushed us home.

(Thunder rumbled by as I uploaded this picture. It has a sense of drama.)

As most of you will know, knitting is something currently beyond my abilities. Despite lots of massage, stretching, and anti-inflammatory creams, I cannot wield knitting needles yet. That’s okay. There are other fun things to do. (I know, I know. It’s a hard life.)

Since 7 years together is either copper or wool, I figured my decision was easy. I bought WAY too much roving and got to work on a needle-felted narwhal.

Now, there’s logic here; my partner is big on narwhals. As I type she is drinking out of a narwhal mug, in fact! For Valentines this year, she drew me a picture of a raccoon (me) and a narwhal (her) hanging out. It’s a thing. Don’t judge us for being awesome, dude.

It turns out needle-felting is even more fun when done flat rather in a 3D shape. It’s like painting but with fluff. Yay.

I started out with a mix of blues, including some greeny silk I had laying around the place, with some white bits for added depth. This took far too long considering how simple it looks now that it’s done.

Next, I added some seaweed. I had a small clump of green/brown/bronze fibre that I think might be alpaca, but don’t quote me on that. It’s been in my drawer for roughly 516 years. I’m not even sure where it came from, but I do know it’s been there since before I moved back to England that one time.

This was a lot of fun to do. 10/10 would stab with barbed needles again.

Once that part was done, I started on the narwhal! EXCITING TIMES. I build up a bubble of white and fashioned it into a vague sort of whale shape, mostly hoping for the best rather than actually knowing what I’m doing. It turned out alright though.

Narwhals are blue, you know. As is water. Fortunately, I had a bunch of shades around because apparently I own more roving than I ever thought I would.

The horn was the most fun part. I made a white cone by just felting it a bit between my hands, then wound a small piece of black fluff, I mean roving, around it. Then I stabbed it a whole bunch until it was felting into place.

(Descriptions like that are why I shouldn’t write ‘how to’ articles.)

At this point I realised everything would kind of fade into itself, so I did a thing. I made that black fluffy twirl go all around the edges of the whale. I’m really pleased I did it; it gave it depth and makes it really stand out from the rest of the picture.

I mean, it literally stands out because it’s a bump, but that’s not the point.

It gives it a cartoonish air which is fun and defines it a lot more. I was really pleased with how it turned out, and my partner seems to like it. She’s put it up above her small forest she has on her table.

Here’s the finished image, before I made it pretty on a wooden frame:

I’ll be coming back to this medium for sure. It’s a lot of fun and I have a dozen ideas already.

Who among you folks has tried this before? If you have any links, I’d love to see your creations!

Suddenly, a cardigan appears

Over the last week I have finished a few projects  (on their way to the blocking mat) and frogged one fairly major project (story coming later this week). Since everything on the needles is giving me attitude, I decided to start a project I’ve been excited about for a while.

Plus it was my birthday Sunday. What better excuse to cast on a cardigan?

I only started this yesterday and it’s already ten inches deep. It’s a welcome break from troublesome projects!

An Alpaca Surprise

It’s wonderful to get away for a while. In the middle of July we packed up our things into a car that is much smaller than it looks from the outside, like a sort of reverse TARDIS, and drove a few hours along the edge of Lake Ontario with our knees by our chins. It’s been a long time since I went camping and I had no idea what to expect from a Canadian campsite, so I was excited for new experiences (and hopefully raccoons).

As we drove through the gorgeous Southern Ontario countryside my head whipped around when my girlfriend pointed out a field full of alpacas. I noticed the sign ‘gift shop’ and tried to be polite and say we could maybe stop on the way back? If we had time? Except somehow I gave in and we turned around, pulled into the yard, and descended upon the friendliest alpaca farmer I’ve ever met.

We’ll pretend I’ve met more than one.

The farm was Nuevo Norte Alpacas in Colborne, and the owner – I believe her name was Amy – opened up the gift shop just for us. Well, me. My girlfriend and her mum weren’t in it for the fibre.

Nuevo Norte

She showed us down to the gift shop and I told her that one day I wanted to keep alpacas, and she was super helpful. I feel as though I learned more in that half an hour than anything I’ve learned before. She explained the entire philosophy behind how she cares for the alpacas (and she has 80+ so she should know), and that she got into it for the fibre as much as anything else.

I bought two sets of roving and a beautiful grey lopi yarn from their flock, and geeked out about knitting and spinning. On the way back Amy (I think) showed me the wild woad growing on her land which I had never seen in person – only in pictures. She brought us to the pen full of pregnant alpacas or those who had recently given birth, plus some thoroughly adorable crias (babies). I learned that alpacas all poop in the same spot in the field and that crias will stand for a long time in that spot with nothing happening while they’re still nursing. This entertained me more than it should.

I know this isn’t the kind of image you came here to see, but you’re welcome! 😀

Though I cannot get back out there easily for now as I don’t drive, once I do – and have some spare time – I will be going back. My aim to one day keep alpacas is sincere and I think I’ve found a place that would be perfect to learn more.

If you’re ever passing through, check out Nuevo Norte Alpacas. They do tours and workshops and classes, and they have some gorgeous fibre for sale.

Why Frida Kahlo Inspires Me

When I truly discovered Frida Kahlo I was at a dark point in my life. I was sick and it was the latest in a long line of chronic, painful illnesses and I was tired of struggling through it. Though I was fortunate compared to many in that I could still (mostly) function with the things wrong with me most of the time, I longed for a life where I didn’t know any pain. I grew jealous of those who never got seriously ill and I began to get bitter.

I’m sure anyone who has been through chronic illnesses will understand that feeling. It’s not one I’m proud of but when your body is betraying you it’s difficult to keep on smiling.

Though I already knew of Frida Kahlo in an abstract sense I didn’t know much about her. She was that Mexican woman with the awesome sense of style and a huge amount of pride. She was that painter with the eyebrow and the facial hair. She was that woman who painted her pain onto the canvas and transformed it into beauty.

Okay, no, I didn’t know that last part until I was sick. I started reading about her and exploring her art and I discovered just how inspirational she was. She had gone through so much pain and suffering in her life and yet she consistently turned it into timeless art that still inspires people today. She did not shy away from herself or her pain; she painted both with equal honesty.

“Block Kahlo Rivera 1932” by Carl Van Vechten. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons – https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Block_Kahlo_Rivera_1932.jpg#/media/File:Block_Kahlo_Rivera_1932.jpg

I realised something from understanding Frida Kahlo’s art: pain could be beauty. It did not have to be hollow and meaningless. Though I had no choice whether or not to go through the pain, I had the choice of what to make of it.

Did I want to sit around and mope like so many before me, or did I want to channel all of what I had seen into something better? Frida Kahlo made the answer clear.

Lately I’ve been going through some relatively mild medical nonsense. It’s nothing huge but it’s persistent and therefore tiring, so I’m revisiting the people who have inspired me through my life to keep going when it’s easier to lie down and stop. Frida Kahlo is a huge part of that and when I picked up a few random skeins of mohair/silk yarn a week ago I thought it appropriate that I’d somehow managed to pick a colourway called ‘Kahlo’ without noticing.

Debbie Bliss Angel Prints in ‘Kahlo’. It’s actually a lot softer-coloured than this photo suggests.

This is not a yarn I would normally pick up. I don’t like pink that much and the mohair/silk yarns scare me. Yet I had a migraine and wasn’t thinking straight (or seeing clearly, literally since half my vision was flickering at the time) when I picked it up, and it worked out just right.

Gawd, I love this yarn.

For the last week I’ve been knitting this yarn into a random tube that may or may not end up being a little stop. I don’t like the way the colours fall in the pictures of other people’s projects, so I’m doing short rows to mix it up a bit. It has the added bonus of looking sort of like one of Frida Kahlo’s skirts, though far more muted. I have many things I should be knitting right now but instead I pick up this yarn and I remember how much she inspires me to be a more positive person.

Do you have anyone you look up to in that way?

How to Be a Better Knitter

When I started this blog it was with the idea of documenting my rise from bemused beginner to a better knitter. I had only started knitting shortly before my first post and had no idea back then how much the craft would become a part of my life.

It’s my fifth year of knitting now and I’m still learning something new every day. That’s not an accident either: I am passionate enough about knitting that I want to get better, and getting better involves more than just idle practice of the same things over again. I’ve been thinking a lot about how I got past the initial stage of knitting straight scarves and grimacing at the thought of anything more complicated and this post is the result.

So here’s ten ways I’ve found helped to be a better knitter. If you have any to add let me know!

1. Know that you suck.

The first time I picked up the needles and awkwardly cast on I was terrified. Not because I might strangle myself with the acrylic yarn or stab myself with the aluminium needles, but because I was trying something new and had no idea whether I would be good at it.

That’s the problem with a lot of people when embarking on acquiring new skills: we expect to be perfect immediately without the normal learning curve or we abandon it. Yet without these times we’ll never get to the part where we can wield our tools without injury and/or embarrassment.

So embrace the fact you suck and don’t let it stop you. No one is an expert at first try.

2. Don’t be afraid.

The thought of tackling another skill, even one as fun and rewarding as knitting, can be daunting. What if you spend all that time learning and still suck? What if you waste money on lovely yarn you never use? What if someone laughs at your modest creations?

These thoughts are normal but they shouldn’t be all you think about. Sure, knitting is hard for most people at first but there’s no need to be afraid of it.

3. Find a knitting group

I’m biased in that I learned to knit purely because my friend started up a knitting group in my hometown but I truly believe that sitting with a bunch of other knitters will help you.

Maybe it’s osmosis, but I find that sitting with my knitter friends for any length of time makes me feel like I can knit anything ever. Maybe it’s the inspiration of seeing what other people are making or maybe it’s just the assurance of knowing there are people you can turn to when you have questions. Whatever it is, my knitting groups are the driving force behind my knitting addiction.

Plus they’re really fun.

4. Be patient.

As I said, knitting is hard for almost everyone when they first pick up the needles. If it is easy for you right off the bat you are, sorry to say, a bit of a freak. It takes patience to get through that initial stage no matter how frustrating it can be.

The largest chunk of your patience will be when you make a mistake and have to fix or rip it back. This is where you will need to take a deep breath, put down the needles for a few minutes, and back away from the flamethrower. It’s okay. You will get through this.

5. Learn how to fix mistakes.

After a solid week of knitting (I’m barely exaggerating here), I had a very long, far too wide scarf on my needles. I looked at it with pride and then, after a moment, with despair. It was not a rectangle any more. It was a strange off-centred shape where I had been added and subtracting stitches at the end of rows.

The scarf in question.

To most people it wouldn’t have been obvious but for me it was the end of the project. I threw it down and picked up a crochet hook then didn’t knit again for a few months. This was my first project (which eventually ended up covered in flowers and tied to a lamppost) and trying to fix it scared me too much to bother.

When I went on YouTube and figured out how to keep track of stitches and pick up dropped ones I began to see that fixing errors wouldn’t mean the end of the world and knitting became much easier.

6. Get on Ravelry.

Most knitters who read this blog will already be regulars of Ravelry. If you’re not you need to be. Even if you don’t frequent the message boards (which can be extra fun), there are thousands of patterns available both as a resource and a way of gaining inspiration.

You can search by yarn weight and yardage to find the perfect project for the skein you have instead of falling back on old ideas. You can see the many ways this creative culture shows off its skills. And if you get stuck, you can pop on the boards and ask a question with a few dozen answers in no time at all.

It’s not an exaggeration to say I wouldn’t be the knitter I am today without Ravelry.

7. Count Your Stitches.

This seems like an obvious one but it wasn’t for me. The way I became more than a confused beginner was by consciously counting my stitches both on the live stitches to find my place and the rows to see my progress.

Though this is easy enough on stockinette and only a little trickier on garter stitch, it becomes more complicated when we get to cables and lace-work. Working out how to read your knitting by counting the rows and stitches gives you an advantage as you’ll be able to spot when you go wrong much quicker. Even better, you’ll be able to gauge how to fix it without setting fire to it and/or throwing it out of the top floor window.

8. Try new things.

We are creatures of habit, us humans. We like to settle in with what we know and stick to it.

But that isn’t going to get you anywhere with knitting. Have a look around and find interesting things to try; Pinterest is a great resource for that, as is Ravelry. Pick out a new lace stitch and swatch it just to see what happens. Put a cable or two in your stockinette. Try short rows without bursting into tears.

If it turns out you don’t enjoy that new stitch, oh well. You’ve learned something along the way which is never time wasted.

9. Ignore other people’s fear.

When you whip out the DPNs and fingering-weight yarn you will probably get someone saying how they’ve never tried socks, they’re too hard. Or if you pick up the slender circular and cast on laceweight they will grimace and say they can’t imagine doing something that fiddly.

Ignore them.

There is nothing inherently difficult about turning a heel and yet I was terrified of getting to it the first time I knitted a sock. Not because I thought I couldn’t figure it out but because so many people had already told me how difficult it was. They told me to use lifelines and not worry because no one turns a heel the first time successfully.

And then, perched on the edge of my seat with my teeth gritted, I did it. I turned a heel. No fireworks, no triumphant trombones, just an adorable rainbow sock whose twin I never made.

10. Stop reading and knit!

The biggest barrier to acquiring any new talent is time. If you can’t find the time then you won’t have the skill. Knitting is more labour-intensive than many people realise and it gets even worse (or better) once you’re hooked.

Knit whenever and wherever you can: on the train, at work (if you’re allowed), at home in front of the TV, out in the garden. Wherever you can pull out the WIP, do it. Every single stitch you complete is making you a better knitter.

As my friend once said, if you can’t find time to do something then you probably don’t want to do it all that badly anyway. If you want to be a better knitter, find the time to knit.

How did you become a better knitter?

The House of Geeks

Say you put two geeks in a house and tell them to make it their own. What do you think will happen?

My girlfriend and I have been living together for over a week now, but we cohabited for the entirety of 2012 too so we’ve had some practice. The most stressful transition by far has been trying to figure out which comics to keep and which to ditch for now on our budget. I instantly said I wanted to keep:

1. Black Widow
2. She-Hulk
3. Ms. Marvel
4. Captain Marvel

They are my favourite comics apparently, or at least the ones that mean the most to me. Because if pressed I would say Matt Fraction’s Hawkeye is my favourite. We’re keeping that too, along with Young Avengers and Iron Man. But it’s the female-fronted comics that mean the most to me because not only do they have good stories (at least these ones do, especially Ms. Marvel) they also stand for increased diversity in Marvel comics and I’m a feminist as much as I’m a nerd.

Aside from masses of comics, there are a few other signs around the house that we might be of a geek persuasion.

Hawkeye and Cyclops are hanging out there happily. If we had a little more cash during our trip to Toronto on our 4 year anniversary, I’m sure my girlfriend would have brought home the Daryl (from Walking Dead) bust we saw at the Silver Snail.

In terms of knitting, I’m currently job-hunting (read: unemployed) so I’ve had a little extra time. I’m most of the way through a bright pink sock for my girlfriend which really just shows how much I love her since I really, really don’t like knitting with pink. The only one who has been granted such an honour before was my little sister who is awesome.

The pattern is Hermione’s Everyday Socks by Erica Lueder. If you’ve been on Ravelry you’ve seen them; they’re the most popular sock pattern, at least in the free category which is all I can look at until I get a job. It’s such a simple pattern but very satisfying.

As for the yarn, it was my last purchase from The Knit Studio in Newcastle. It’s Lang Jawoll Superwash in brain-searing pink which will go quite nicely with most of my girlfriend’s clothes, including her work uniform. And I’m the feminine one.

In a final bout of exciting news, I finished the Avengers blanket of doom. It took me a year but I did it. I also realised I spent about three months knitting the thing and then, in an absolutely nonsensical chain of events, took nine bloody months to sew it together and weave in the ends. I never thought of myself as one of those knitters but apparently I am.

I’ll be posting pictures of that next week when I can talk someone into helping me. It’s almost as tall as me.

The Trials of Emigrating

I’m going to miss my mini garden here.

It turns out preparing to emigrate is a lot more hard work than I remember from my last time leaving the country, but then last time I was extremely ill with IIH and on some rather potent medication so it’s honestly a bit of a blur. Seeing as I turned up in Canada with a few items of clothing and all of my yarn, including my crappy stuff, I don’t think I was all there during the process.

This time I’m going to send all but my most expensive, treasured yarn ahead of me or just get rid of it (/donate it to friends). I can only bring one suitcase. The most difficult part will be my comics, of which I have many. It’s looking like the only option is to send them ahead which is going to be expensive but less expensive than buying them all over again. Most of my things I can stand to get rid of; I have deliberately not acquired many books or DVDs this year which has meant purchasing a kindle and living off Netflix. Yarn and comics? Those are too important to me.

Due to the rest of my brain power being thoroughly taken up by the stress (and sheer bloody elation) of moving back to Canada to my wonderful girlfriend and all our pets, the rest of this entry can be in bullet points.

• The necklace I made with Supremily is getting a lot of compliments. Someone even said it looks professionally made. It doesn’t but I’m still very proud of it.
• I am reading a book called Human Remains by Elizabeth Haynes. It is one I downloaded onto my kindle at some point then forgot about but I’m enjoying it immensely. It is a crime novel about a man who talks people into giving up life, then watches their bodies after they’ve starved to death. It’s not for the faint-hearted.
• I have a week left at work. I deliberately gave notice for the Friday of next week so I can definitely go to the last Saturday knitting group at the Knit Studio. My friend Rachael and I (who have had adventures before) are going to make a yarny day of it. More on that next week.
• Knitting is difficult right now because I’m so distracted. I have, however, been finishing off a large worsted-weight shawl in TARDIS blue. Soon there will be pictures.
• Some friends joined me for goodbye drinks at the wonderful Bar Loco which does the best pizzas ever. It was a great night and I’m honoured to have met so many lovely people in this fine city. I’ll miss them. Thankfully we live in 2014, not 1814; I can use Facebook to communicate with them instead of writing longhand letters and destroying my tendons. Woo modern times!

That’s it for now. What are you guys up to at the moment? Anyone started their summer knitting? I’ve been meaning to start some socks – perfect lightweight knitting!

A (Nerdy) Day in Durham

It’s one thing to meet someone with one similar interest to you; it’s quite another to meet someone with lots. That’s how I feel about quite a few people I’ve met in Newcastle since I moved up here a year and a bit ago. I never expected to meet people who share both my love of comics and my love of knitting/fibre in general but I have multiple yarn/nerd friends up here and they’re all wonderful.

One of these friends is Rachael. We met at my first or second trip to the Knit Studio for the Saturday knitting group (currently suspended) and hit it off, eventually deciding that we needed to hang out outside of the knit group.

A couple of weeks ago we decided to go to Durham to see the new yarn store (The Woolly Workshop) and to go the comic book cafe (Dark Matter Cafe). SUCH A GOOD IDEA. I bought some lovely Cashmerino from the yarn store – yes, the one that made the baby hat/booties – and marvelled over the sheep model outside it. We went TWICE to Dark Matter Cafe because their peanut butter hot chocolate is utterly divine and we could not resist going back for more.

As Rachael said, THE FACE(s) OF PURE JOY!

Rachael is the one with the blue mask and fabulous hair; I’m the one with the rather dashing jawline and sparkling whites.

It’s so refreshing to go to a place where you feel comfortable and like you’re in the majority rather than the minority. People were sitting playing Pokemon and making awful Pokemon/Doctor Who puns. The walls were filled with posters and interesting comic art. These were our people. I wish I’d had somewhere like that to go as a teenager; I woulda been much happier.

Plus it’s super pretty.

Of course we got a little knitting done whilst enjoying our drinks. Rachael is making her first socks; they’re amazing because she is an over-acheiver when it comes to knitting new things, seriously. And I knitted some more of a scarf I’m making out of some beautiful blue silk.

Left: Fishnet lace scarf. Right: FABULOUS first sock.

All this in the beautiful surroundings of Durham which is one of my favourite places in the world. Sure, you go home with super sore muscles from walking up and down all the ridiculous hills but it’s gorgeous and full of interesting things as well as the famous Cathedral which is older than my brain can compute and drenched in history.

Just look at that. So cool.

It’s days like these that fill me up with happiness and inspiration. I’m lucky to have such interesting and awesome people in life. Since today I’m going to eat lunch with another fellow knitter/nerd (hello Jen!) I’m feeling especially pleased with my lot in life.

Except for that part where I’m still waiting to hear back from the Canadian Embassy. Hurry up, guys.

At least I have fun things to do and nice people to see while I wait to go home!

For Tiny People

Patterns:

Hat – Little Scallops by Maria Carlander.

Booties – Saartje’s Booties (modified) by Saartje de Bruijn.

I used Baby Cashmerino which is totally squishable. I managed to get these little cuties done while on five days holiday from work – there were a lot of train journeys so even though I messed up the booties the first time I still finished it off quite quickly.

Beautiful patterns, beautiful yarn.

Nupps: A First Attempt

In some flash of madness I decided that nupps cannot be as difficult as people say. They’re wrong, thought I. People told me turning a heel was hard and I did it without any problem at all. Jumpers/sweaters are a piece of cake despite what people have said. Yeah, okay, self. Let’s try a nupp.

A notoriously difficult and fiddly stitch involving a k7tog in this pattern. A k7togtbl, in fact. Yes. Knit seven together through the back loop. That sounds like something I can do, I decided. It’s totally not a big deal that I am sitting on a bumpy bus on the way to work when I make this decision.

For anyone considering doing this: don’t. Just don’t. It was never destined to end well.

Whoops a not-nupp!

The problem is, of course, that I’m a super tight knitter. I get even worse when I’m anxious, like say when I’m about to try a really difficult stitch for the first time whilst using a really splitty yarn and bouncing around on the crappy Newcastle roads. There was no poking my needle through that little clump no matter how hard I tried.

I am not defeated. I will defeat the nupps.

Maybe next time I’ll wait til I’m off the bus.