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stub it out and cast it on

Published by louise

This weekend I was thinking that I’d like to write a post on the power of knitting and how it can really help get you through some tough situations…and maybe a bit more on that later in the week, but it was fortuitous that as I was thinking about writing this post I saw a tweet from designer Erika Knight about her wool being used in something fantastic called the Knit Quit Kit.

The kits are designed by Vanessa Bracewell; she had smoked for 30 years and in the summer of last year decided to give up. Vanessa turned to knitting to help beat the cravings of nicotine withdrawal and soon struck upon the idea for the kits. You can read a bit more about her story here.

When I decided to give up smoking I was already having a tough emotional time. I was wandering aimlessly in a shop one day when I was passed a display of Patons FAB. I randomly selected a ball and some 4mm steel pins. I say randomly because I guess it wasn’t what I had gone in for, but it was intuitive on some level because I knew I needed something to get me through.

I was driven to despair with nicotine withdrawal and by all the connections I had to nicotine and smoking: I had a cup of coffee and so I wanted a cigarette; I finished a nice meal and so I wanted a cigarette; I was waiting and inordinately long time for a bus and so I wanted to smoke; I was feeling hugely emotional and moody due to the effects of nicotine withdrawal and so I wanted to smoke even more!

I needed something to do with my hands and during the cravings this was even worse. I had knit as a child and always been around knitters, but as I sat with my purple acrylic and my long needles I realised I had forgotten how to even cast on! How I wished there was such a thing as Vanessa’s kit then!

The kit contains everything you need to help put your mind and hands to other challenges when attempting to give up smoking, from easy to follow patterns, bamboo needles, pretty cakes of Erika Knight’s British wool  and all the accessories you need to make the three different kits; an owl keyring, knitted bracelets and a drawstring purse kit.

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As I mentioned, the cigarette packet style boxes contain British wool from Erika Knight’s British Blue Wool range – 100% British blue face Leicester. I can’t think of anything nicer for these kits. BFL is soft, lustrous and knits like a dream…it’s also machine wash at 30 degrees!

Erika has a fantastic attitude toward yarn and wool and one I can totally get on board with;

My ethos is simple: to keep sheep grazing our beautiful landscape, to promote our unique British sheep breeds and to make it all here in Britain, producing a distinctive British product. Wool is naturally soft, comfortable and sustainable, making it the ultimate fibre for the hand knitter.

I wish I had discovered the wonders of wool for my first skein, rather than acrylic. I now know the sensory wonderfulness of knitting with BFL and how soothing a fibre that will be in the pursuit of knitting to calm the senses; gliding through the fingers like buttery silk.

Thankfully, after discovering Knitty I managed to remember how to cast on and I was off. Every time a craving hit, or I felt my mood change due to smoking withdrawal I knit another little bit. It helped immensely.

It took another attempt at it before I gave up for good (and IT IS for good!) but knitting was truly helpful: it gave me focus when I thought my only focus was on smoking and before I knew it I had a new addiction!

Are you thinking about stopping smoking? Maybe you have recently given up and struggling, like I did, with cravings or with the total mind-bender that is nicotine’s effects on the brain. If your hands are looking for something to do and you think a new hobby could help you, then seek out a Knit Quit Kit.

My first bit of advice though, is find your local smoking cessation group. Some people baulk at the idea of sharing the horrors of quitting smoking with a group, but give it a go – you are four times more likely to stay stopped and honestly, while knitting was a saviour, it was the support of the group, the help of the trained NHS staff and the nicotine replacement therapy that helped me. Going cold turkey is fine for some – even cold turkey + knitting –  but many of us need a bit more to help us kick the habit.

Clare Scope-Farrell’s knitted cigarettes (free pattern)

I am so entirely pleased to see Vanessa’s fantastic initiative and thrilled that the contents are full of yarny goodness that supports the British wool industry.

I like that these are beginner kits, as giving up smoking is a good incentive to start a new hobby – but there are also plenty of  knitters out there who might want to give up smoking too. Perhaps a kit aimed at a more experienced knitter would be a future plan… something to treat oneself with for reaching your quit date, or an incentive to keep going  – we can easily be swayed with yarn, y’know.

The Knit Quit Kits costs £17.99 – which is roughly the cost of 2 packets of fags – and I know that Vanessa has been inundated with interest and there has been a bit of media coverage in the last week. Well done to her, I hope the kits help lots of smokers become ex-smokers!

If you are thinking about quitting, have already quit or have stopped for quite a long time then well done. It is a hard road and not an easy course, but there is a lot of help available and lots of people who have gone through it to cheer you on.  Its a hard thing to decide to quit and it can take an impetus to stop that resonates with only you.

Maybe more on the power of  knitting later this week.

: : Further Info : :

You can buy Erika’s British Blue Wool from great retailers such as Made by Ewe and Tangled Yarn. There are also some of the colourways available on the Knit Quit Kit website

Please check out the NHS for information on stopping smoking and there are also some helpful phone lines you can call for advice.

 

finished things

Published by louise

I realised the other day that I haven’t been talking much about WIPs and FOs on the blog, rather talking about them on the podcast. I realise that some of you read, some of you listen and some of you do both, so I hope you do not mind if I revisit some recent FOs and tell you a little more about their lovely yarns (Although, you may have to forgive the odd selfie. Camera-toting fiance’s weren’t always around)

: : Gaither : :

One of the first projects of the year was Tin Can Knit’s pattern Gather, a hat and cowl pattern which feature smocking. Now, I had always loved the look and texture of smocking but put it down to it being one of those things that would be tricky and so I put smocking in my “one day I’ll learn” pile….. it is really, really simple and such good fun to knit.  And when I say simple…I could do it in front of River City.  It was incredibly pleasing to watch that honeycombed goodness emerge and you get that pattern-emerging satisfaction almost immediately. As always a beautifully written pattern by Tin Can Knits, easy to follow and – again, as always with their patterns – I immediately wanted to cast on another!

The yarn is Yarn Pony Highland Pony sport weight, which is a blend of 50% Suri alpaca and 50% merino….hellloooo, soft, sultry, sexy yarn! It was like knitting with air! I really love the colours that Mica  (one half of the amazing duo behind the Edinburgh Yarn Festival, as well as dyer-extraordinaire!) creates. There is such a depth of hue in this Toffee Cinder colour – caramels, toffees, fudges – honeyed colours that are a feast on the eyes, delightful to feel and, quite frankly, make me need some sweeties, stat!

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You can find Yarn Pony Yarns in Kathy’s Knits and The Woolly Brew and if you are interested in learning to dye your own wool why not subscribe to Mica’s blog to find out when she is running her next dyeing workshops?

 : : H O X N E : :

My first version of Karina Westermann’s shawl, from the Doggerland collection, was also the first time I had knit with lace weight wool! I had used Shetland Organics laceweight on that version, but had done a bit of struggling to get the sheepy yarn wrangled on the slippy metal needles. I loved the pattern, but I had made a couple of mistakes in that one and decided I would knit another one straight away…if at first you don’t succeed!

The yarn I used on this version was Laura’s Loom BFL single lace weight yarn. Laura has a real love affair for British yarn and has a real desire to know exactly where the wool comes from when she is weaving her beautiful cloth. The wool in this yarn is from the Yorkshire Dales and you can see from Laura’s website how important wool miles and the idea of local is so incredibly important to her and her work. I really enjoyed working this yarn. It has just a little more sturdiness than BFL I have knit with in the past (maybe due to twist?) and I love that I can scrunch hoxne around me on a cold day, but if I give it a shake the pattern completely opens up again! Magic!

If you like shawl knitting I cannot recommend Karie’s patterns highly enough – they are always so beautifully written and I love learning about her inspiration behind the patterns. Hoxne is a lovely knit. I really felt it’s rhythym when I was knitting it and in places it was almost intuitive.

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I quickly realised I had not bought enough yarn and so skipped the last repeat on the shawl and played yarn chicken! I cast off in a little lilac Scottish lambswool (an experiment with Kool Aid) and I love that tiny little ping of different tone at the edge.

: : Maets dna ssarb fo ega (Age of Brass and Steam) : : 

Named backwards because instead of knitting the kerchief as directed, I reversed the stockinette section to garter and the garter eyelet section for ST ST. It is knitted in Viola, a merino DK yarn spun and colour blended by the fantastic Devon millJohn Arbon.

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I adore this yarn, the colours are multi-faceted and have been blended to look hand-dyed! Thick, plumpy and so cozy. Age of Brass and Steam is brilliantly quick knit and definitely recommended as great first shawl project.

: : R A M O N A : :

This is my most recent FO and I adore it. The Ramona Cardigan is by Elizabeth Smith. I was really drawn to the simple style and that beautiful deep ribbed hem.  It was a relatively quick knit and I think I would have been finished it much quicker had I not had a trip away amid knitting it.

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The yarn is JC Rennie Chunky (but actually aran) lambswool; this is on the cone and greasy and I really liked knitting with it – though it can be bought in balls and non-greased. It is a lovely robust yarn, soft and has a slight tweedy look. I am keen to knit with this yarn again but, if like me, you prefer to see large swatch  pictures of the different colourways, you may be a bit disappointed with the KnitRennie site. The swatch images are tiny! Ravelry is great for checking out better colour images and looking up garments made in this yarn if you need more visuals.

I was determined that I was not going to lengthen or modify the pattern in anyway (as I usually do this!) but the only mod I made was to knit the same rib on the cuffs as there is on the hem! I knew I wouldn’t be able to resist a tiny change!

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I’ll try not to forget about the FOs on the blog, in addition to discussing them on the podcast!

What have you cast off recently? If it’s in British wool you can share your projects in the KnitBritish Ravelry group – you can also join in the chatter on your favourite British yarns and dyed wool and also tell us about your Desert Island Knits.

More British wool for all budgets

Published by louise

| Update June 16

Since I first wrote this post in 2014 there have been some changes and lots of new yarns! I have updated this post to reflect those. 

: : : : : :

In the last few years I’ve blogged (and regularly updated) about UK yarns for Under £5, Under £10 and for a few pennies more. You’d think after all that time I would stop being surprised when people tell me that British wool is too expensive for them. I have written and spoken about the misconceptions of this before and also written a post begging the question what is the true cost of your making and how much are you willing to spend on your materials for quality, hand-knitted items. (I know that there will be more misconceptions and more posts to follow!)

We all have a budget for yarn buying; sometimes we need reining in and other times we impose yarn diets on ourselves. I am quite sure that since I started KnitBritish the more I’ve learned about my wool, what goes into it, where it comes from and how it is created that my own yarn purse strings have lengthened a little. We all like good value, but there is no doubting that we like a little streak of luxury too. With that in mind, I have (in no particular order) a range of yarns from around £3.50 to £24 – beautiful, British (grown, dyed or spun – if not all three) and will suit a wide variety of budgets. 
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episode 6 and the FOMO

Published by louise

Preview on spotify:

UPDATE: Due to space I can no longer host the audio files on the blog, please use your favourite podcatcher, or right click the podgen link to open the podcast episode in a new window: Podgen

  • A little round up of my recent blogs and mentioning fantastic Knitsofacto’s blog
  • The Little Yellow Duck Project – random acts of ducky kindness and an excellent way to raise awareness of the importance of donation. Please check the website out. Also mentioned the Ottawa statue scarf knitters
  • Cast on/Cast off – the lovely lovely Ramona cardi is on me – its a great, simple cardi pattern. The buttons came from Textile Garden!  Casting on Lush by Tin Can Knits in Brigantia DK. There is movement on Tree Rings blanket too with a new scallop lace edge here
  • Sheep adoption and sponsorship – are you doing this? Shankend Farm have a great group on Ravelry where you can see how the scheme is working with them. There is also info on www.woolsack.org. I am  very interested to do this and track the progress from farm to yarn on KnitBritish. Are you offering sheep sponsorship with British breeds; are you a mill who can spin the fleece for me; are you an indy dyer who can teach me how to dye my finished yarn? Get in touch.
  • Wool Festivals – FOMO (fear of missing out) over Unwind Brighton. Have you seen the line-up?   A Playful Day is planning a podcaster meet up. The Highland Wool Festival will definitely help ease the Unwind FOMO!
  • Shetland Wool Week (4-12 Oct) Tickets go on sale on Monday morning. Do not miss out!

Early colourwork from Shetland

Published by louise

I slightly hesitate in beginning another post featuring Fair Isle, but let me say first many thanks for all the shares and comments on the Origin & Ownership blog.  I was particularly careful to say throughout that post that those were my thoughts on the subject. I was not tackling why we often refer to any colourwork as Fair Isle,  but rather musing on ideas of ownership within that umbrella. Yes, as one commenter pointed out, there IS rigidity in calling everything Fair Isle, but that’s an argument interesting blog for another day.

anyway…

The lovelyfella and I were in the Shetland Museum yesterday having a wander around the the wonderful exhibition that they currently have on at the moment, Writing the North, which explores the connections through Shetland and Orkney’s literary history. After marvelling at the hand-written letters of Hugh MacDiarmid; an animated journey of Sir Walter Scott in Shetland and Orkney; the first book published by a Shetlander; the delightful yellow gansey belonging to George MacKay Brown and listening to Shetland poetry on an old wireless set – we then thought we would take a quick turn about the Museum before we left.

George MacKay Brown's coat and gansey

George MacKay Brown’s coat and gansey

I found myself drawn to the display of the Gunnister Man. He was found in in 1951, when two local men were cutting peats near Gunnister in the North Mainland of Shetland.

The body dated from the late 17th/early 18th century and was purposely buried in the peat along with his possessions, which included coins, a small wooden pail, a belt,  rivlins (foot wear) and a selection of knitted items, including stockings, gauntlets, two caps and a knitted purse.

It is not known if the man was local or a visitor, or if he died of an illness or exposure. Shetland was still in the grip of the Little Ice Age during the suspected dates of the Gunnister Man’s death and his many layers of woollen clothing may not have been enough to help him survive the extremely harsh weather.

The purse that was found in the belongings is the first example of colourwork knitting to be discovered in the isles.

photograph from the Shetland Museum and Archive

The main colour is a dark mixed grey with a small geometric design in red and white wool.

The yarn is a rather unevenly spun 2-ply Z [direction of twist]. There are 11 stitches and 16 rows per inch measured on the stocking stitch. The bag is worked on four needles, and was cast-on with 86 stitches at the top. The first 2 ins are a rib of 3 plain 2 purl or 2 plain 2 purl stitches. There is no shaping. In the plain part there are 3 narrow bands of “Fair Isle” pattern.

Henshall, Audrey S.; Stuart Maxwell (1951-1952). “Clothing and Other Articles from a Late 17th-century grave at Gunnister, Shetland

This replica in the Shetland Museum shows the design more clearly.

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It is rather thrilling to look at this, the little coloured squares – the colours themselves, in fact! – to think that someone wore this in the late 17th century as not only an item of function, but as something designed to be aesthetically pleasing too.

Again, it is uncertain whether the Gunnister Man or his knitted items originated in Shetland. His coins were Swedish and Dutch, but these were common in Shetland at the time and so they offer no further clue, but isn’t it lovely that this little fragment of colour – no doubt lovingly made for the man – was the first of its kind to be be found here in Shetland?

Such a delightful and humble beginning to the tradition we now *often* refer to as Fair Isle. Mighty oaks from little acorns grow!

You can find out more about the Gunnister Man exhibition here and read the original Proceedings of Antiquaries of Scotland article here  which goes into fine detail about the finds and the garments.

 

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stereotypes, bandwagoning #ANDknitting

Published by louise

If you were reading twitter on Wednesday you might have seen the appearance of hashtag ANDknitting.

This was created by Kay Gardiner (@KayGardiner ) in response to a piece on the Guardian/Observer website entitled, Knitting and needlework: relaxing hobbies or seditious activities?

On the surface it looks like…could it be?…an article about knitting, written by a knitter regarding the practice from within the practice. No, it couldn’t be. What it was, in fact, was another lazy look at the “recent revival” in knitting and crafts. Recent? Revival? Is anyone else sick to death of the use of these words when it comes to knitting being mentioned in the media.

“Yes!” she said, upon discovering a rusty pair of needles in a dusty needle-roll in a museum vault and holding them aloft, “let’s start a knitting revival”, said no knitter. Never!

The author seems to be trying to dispel some myths about knitting, but ends up entirely ladling stereotype and cliché over a pile of yarn barf. Why, oh why, oh why does any mention of knitting HAVE to be accompanied by the association of grannies? There is even a large archive image of older women standing over the garden fence knitting, only strengthening the stereotype and image that knitting is the pastime of crones, with nothing better to do.

To add insult to injury the article continues on to state that, guess what? it is ok to be seen to be doing this thing, this “relic of women’s domestic servitude”, because Kate Moss and the Duchess of Cambridge have been seen knitting. High class and high fashion mean it is ok?  *resists urge to swear violently*

To say that this “recent interest” in knitting is due to high profile celebs taking up the practice is insulting, especially coming from someone who appears to be a knitter.  Again I say, why, oh why, oh why? Why, when there are millions of knitters out there, do journalists take the lazy and ill-informed approach  of barely scraping the surface of the thing? – interview people; look at Ravelry and its 4 million users; find your local knitting group; look how many yarn festivals, crawls and related events there are out there. Surely to goodness it is not difficult to see that knitting has been a hobby that has been enjoyed for many, many years by a diverse and varied bunch of people – all ages and both sexes – you might think that what you write is only going to be of interest to a small minority of readers, but arming yourself with a bit of research and info is a powerful thing!

Knitting doesn’t need to be revived!   Yes, there’s been a shift from occupation to recreation over the years and there are areas of the craft that one could say are on the wane. Here I mean very local traditions of knitting certain styles, where perhaps the main upholders of the style or patterns have passed on or  – like in Shetland – the decline of knitting in the younger generation as school budgets that accommodated its teaching were cut. However this does not detract from the fact that knitting never went away. It has boomed for sure, gone from strength to strength, gaining popularity and new inknitiates. While we may have seen the Kates knit in the news, perhaps it is only a recent interest for them!

I know I don’t need to tell any of this to the majority of you – but this kind of rainy day, space-filling pap really annoys me. If newspapers really want to fill space with interest in traditional crafts  – and traditional does not mean dust-covered and ancient! – then at least do a bit of legwork.

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look, a piece of knitting! it’s cool now, apparently!

That idea that knitting is cool now, cos trendy people do it (!) is further galling when the author makes a comment that knitting is something to do “for women who just have too much time on their hands”. Oh! and there is also the assertion that knitting is now art, nothing practical, or terribly useful – just art for lazy gals. I resist the urge to swear, but please feel free to use your own expletives here.

Another lazy omission – there is no mention of the importance and the definite rise in knitting groups  – a bunch lazy gals sitting around and knitting together  maybe doesn’t carry much interest for the author.

And the importance of thing which every knitter needs isn’t really stressed either. Oh, ok, wool and yarn are mentioned, but in reference to dusty boxes, spinning goddesses, weaving witches and Ghandi – which do you relate to more?!  How about a word on yarn from indie dyers, or any British yarn company? Revival knitters have no interest in yarn, right?

I now draw your attention to the sentence that craps over every knitter, every where, ever.

Needlecraft, it seems, is just not relevant to the reality of modern women’s lives.

Twitter knitters were incensed – some felt “stabby and crabby” –  and it was Kay who then  tweeted,

OK, just for fun and to educate @guardian : knitters tweet their other occupations with hashtag #ANDknitting

— Kay Gardiner (@KayGardiner) April 9, 2014

I urge you to read the #ANDknitting thread on twitter – although no amount of tweeting or blogging will make a difference to a newspaper who publishes lazily researched pieces, rather than something of real interest and substance – just you see how irrelevant knitting is to people’s lives.

I fonging love being part of this love-in of knitters, this tightly wound skein of like-minded individuals who, excluding that author, find that knitting and craft is not only something they do, but find it is part of them and connects them to so many.

Like I said when I reviewed Ann Hood’s excellent compilation, Knitting Yarns: Writers on Knitting, (on the latest podcast) knitting is about connections with others; those who taught us, those we now knit with or pass the skills onto. Knitting is learning. There are tough lessons along the way in the quest to create and perfect – not to mention the crazy maths, the decoding of instructions, the horror of realising a dropped stitch 9 rows back and the victory of managing to loop it back up through your garment to put it back on the needle!

For me knitting is something I have connections to in my family’s past, but it is also something I do for fun, for love, knitting for peace and for clarity and to push myself to learn new skills within the craft.

Norwegian designer Siren Elise Wilhelmsen’s 365 Knitting Clock

When you knit you watch the time that you spend doing it become something. There is the act of knitting and there is the creation of something – most people knit to do both, some knit to keep busy or find calm and others make a career of knitting.

There is knitting for art too (so neatly coupled with the idea of time, above), but do not for one second believe that because someone knits they are doing it to waste time or just because one has nothing better to do. (Nothing better to do is perhaps a good description of the author at the time of writing her piece on the knitting revival)

I also tweeted…

#ANDknitting people? Knitting people do not knit because celebs do. we knit to the click of our own sticks ( I am copyrighting that phrase!)

— Louise Scollay (@LouisebScollay) April 9, 2014

By that I do not simply mean that each knitter is singularly unique in their craft; we form a collective rhythm of clicking sticks. We blaze our own trails and, actually, have our own knitting inspirational figures, such as designers and those who work in the wool and knit industry promoting knitting a wool the right way! – although instead of knitting because they do, we continue to knit as we are inspired by what they bring to the craft.

From one riling, hackle-raising attempt at looking at an aspect of everyday culture to then reading #ANDknitting  – I feel even more secure in the knowledge that crafty people are the best bloody people in the world and while there will always be the uninitiated who say “hmmm, I wish I had time to sit and knit all day” or “Knitting? Like what grandma’s do?”  we will stand united, safe in the knowledge that if we really wanted to, we *could* impale them on our DPNS or throttle them with our circs, but we’ll quietly carry on, perhaps being the only ones lucky to truly know the revelations and intricacies of the knitting world we occupy.

Blogger, podcaster, library assistant, support worker, hollyoaks watcher, silly laugher #ANDknitting

episode 5: grab your oars

Published by louise

(This episode should be subtitled “The one in which I can’t say Ravelry” !)

UPDATE: Due to space I can no longer host the audio files on the blog, please use your favourite podcatcher, or right click the podgen link to open the podcast episode in a new window: Podgen

Preview at Spotify:

 

I forgot to tell you about the beautiful yarns I bought from Jess. I DID “know the Brigantia love”, thanks to Clare, as well as the love of Aire Valley and Jess’s own hand-dyed (the one I became attached too!) You can see a pic below.

Click on the pics for larger images. All images copyright.

 

A sunny Sunday stroll in Scalloway

Published by louise

Come on a wee walk with us….

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“see all the different coloured houses, sitting by the sea…”

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fishy fence

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inscriptions on side of house from 1910 by local stonemason and amateur scientist William Johnson. Johnson inscribed several times on theories of the tide. Inscriptions can be read here

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piles of colourful nets at the Muckle Yard, with Scalloway Castle in the background

down by the marina

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bonny blue sky

IMG_4382memorial to the Shetland Bus; the clandestine and dangerous operation of small fishing boats, which travelled secretively to Norway during the Second World War. They transferred agents out, under the cover of darkness, and brought Norwegians to Shetland who feared for their lives under German occupation.

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fishy mosaic work near the artist-in-residence studio, the Booth. The artist studio can be rented out here

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sculpture of terns  by Jo Redman

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ending up with Sunday teas at the local hall, in aid of the Scalloway Museum & Shetland Bus society. Lots of mam’s being treated to tea and cakes for Mother’s day.

I do so hope for more fine days such as this. In weather lore it is said that the last days of March are the borrowing days and the weather has been borrowed from April.

If all the days in April can be like this, I shall feel very grounded and happy indeed.