Ah, you're all still out there! Hurrah! Thanks for sticking around.

Emily (so glad you're coming to SnB day! Have you seen there's an amazing after party?) asks me what I'm planning to do with all that silk. Frankly I'm not sure this is a polite question. It's a little close to what Armin asked me - oh so innocently - at the time of acquisition:

"Is it a good idea to buy yarn without knowing what you're going to do with it?"

*cough*

Yes. Yes it is. It's, um, artistic raw material. It's inspiration in physical form. It is probably essential for knitterly creativity.

Probably.

So anyway, I'm hoping to get maybe two scarves/shawls and one wrap-style cardi out of it. That may be a little ambitious; I don't mind scaling back. We'll see. The important thing to remember is that I could not have been expected to hold back, because:

1. It is silk.
2. It was on sale. (Well, some of it was, and Eirwen gave me a fantastic exhibitor's discount on the rest.)
3. Seriously, did you see those colours?

Case closed.

Posted by Robynn at 09:33 PM | Permalink | 5 cups of tea on the table

...when bloggers have a habit of disappearing without warning, then coming back and apologising profusely, but doing exactly the same thing again pretty soon?

Yeah. Me too.

[embarrassed cough]

Um, so, hello kittens. I've missed you. No, really. Thank you all so very muchfor your comments, and emails, and for stopping by the stand. I know it seems like it meant nothing, since I've pretty much ignored you all, but it meant a lot. A Lot.

And as previously mentioned, I had a great time at the show. Hooray for knitters! You really do make the best customers ever. Special cheers go out to Gabrielle, who brought us champagne at the end of our first day, and to Judy, who brought a spectacularly large pile of excellent chocolate, and a delicious bottle of French wine to go with it. Now I ask you. Can you imagine anything like that happening at a computer expo? Didn't think so.

Another highlight was hearing people talk about the Storytellers patterns. Listen up, you lovely and talented folk who provided them: knitters LOVE them. Seriously. Love. And look! Here's a Cheshire Cat Stole (or scarf, as it may be) in the wild, courtesy of Michelle!

Let's also take a moment to applaud my very lovely husband, who proved that he's not just a pretty face (and pretty handy with the camera and the webby stuff, too), he's also the number 1 guy to have on your side in moments of extreme stress and danger - like, um, setting up an expo stand. (He's done it before, as it happens, but never quite such a crowded one.) And he can talk to knitters about needles and bags and things pretty competently. And he almost didn't show his inner state of terror at all... Apart from a minor crisis on day 2, which resulted in me not being allowed to take a lunch break on day 3. By day 4 he was mostly over that, and I was permitted to eat a sandwich 20m away from the stand.

I did make a break for it during a few quiet moments - mostly at the end of each day. That's when I got to meet people and - oh yes - do a little shopping. It's possible I have a minor addiction to silk. I don't think I can call it a problem though. I mean, does this look like a problem to you?

Some Hipknits, some *cough, splutter* - look, technically, a metric crapload is still "some", okay? - Knitwitches, and a skein of Hummingbird. I'm keen to try alpaca socks. Warm and toasty? I think so.

Anyway, that was my first show. As you may have noticed, it took me some time (please see above on for usage notes on "some") to recover and catch up, but I survived. I had a good time. And I'm going to do it again.

In fact, while I have a year to prepare for the next Ally Pally... I have just 10 days to prepare for the next show. You're going to be there, right? Because it's going to be AWESOME.

(I'm having Wayne's World flashbacks. And I've never even seen Wayne's World.)

Posted by Robynn at 11:19 PM | Permalink | 5 cups of tea on the table

You know, it's hard for me to say this, but... I was wrong.

And you were right.

All that anxiety was for nothing. I had a great first day at Ally Pally! Busy busy, but not so chaotic that I couldn't keep a handle on things; and wow, but it was fun meeting so many of you. I know many more of you will be coming by over the next few days, too. Brilliant!

A full report back will have to wait until next week I think - I am pretty much knackered. (I could happily have gone to bed two hours ago, frankly.) But in a good way.

Kisses all round! Mwah!

Posted by Robynn at 09:26 PM | Permalink | 5 cups of tea on the table

You know what happens this week, don't you?

Ally Pally. The Knitting & Stitching Show. (Well, not the only one, of course; but I'm only exhibiting at this one.) The Big Scary Expo.

What, is that not the right attitude? Is it supposed to be exciting? Weeell... yes, I can see that. But for me, dear knitters, it's mostly scary. Luckily I know some of you will be there, so that's something to look forward to. Stand M33 is the place - and as I have been hinting, there will be some rather special knitterly treats unveiled at the show. I don't want to spoil the surprise, but if you are a lace knitter, or a crocheter, you should be particularly excited. So. Come and see me! I'll need all the encouragement I can get...

Oh, I'm getting nervous just thinking about it. Never mind all that! Let me show you some knitting. (Having finally coaxed the pictures out of Armin's electronic clutches.)

The wedding shrug, as I've said, worked out perfectly.

How's that for a perfect match?

On a more prosaic note, I meant to model some good clear shots of Jess...

...but I was a little bit distracted by the gorgeous views.

And frankly I was having way too much fun to stand still.

You understand, don't you?

More holiday snaps (still the not-so-good ones, I'm afraid) over here.

Posted by Robynn at 09:58 PM | Permalink | 6 cups of tea on the table

Kälte Füsse, wärmes Herz, the saying goes: cold feet, warm heart. Possibly, therefore, the curse of the boyfriend sweater should rather be the curse of the boyfriend socks... but let's hope it doesn't work in reverse.

They're all right. They're not perfect, but they're all right. I'm pleased with the heel, having figured out how to allow a bit of extra room in there, and with the 3x1 ribbed cuff, which is wonderfully snug. I think the ribbing looks so wonky mostly because of the excessive frogging it had to endure; there was a noticeable improvement at the top end (where I moved on to fresh, unfrogged yarn), which you can't really see under the jeans.* The cast-on (toe) is also obviously imperfect - next time I'll be sure to tidy it up much earlier. Anyway, Armin loves them.

The specs:
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock. I found it a bit squeaky, think I'll stick to pure wool in future.
Needles: 2.25mm DPNs. I started on Brittany - having found on my Jaywalkers that I was working tightly and snapping ebony needles at that size; the birch has extra flexbility and resilience - but moved on to Lantern Moon later on, once I realised my tension felt pretty even and safe. Worked well - and the squeakiness was much less apparent on ebony.
Pattern: On Your Toes socks from Interweave, summer 07. I am going to be using this sock recipe a LOT in future.

Apart from the 3x1 ribbing, I made one modification: the heel wasn't deep enough initially. So I increased 2 stitches 1cm before starting the heel, then again 2 rows before heel shaping; I short-rowed down right over those extra 4 stitches; then decreased back to the original size in the same way as I increased. This worked out brilliantly and like the 3x1 ribbing, is likely to become my standard modus operandi for standard socks.
_____
* Aw, the things my beloved Armin does for the sake of my knitting. For this picture, he had to stand on a table (best combination of light and undistracting surface in the flat) and hoik up his trouser legs. Not exactly dignified. Go Armin!

Posted by Robynn at 10:27 AM | Permalink | 4 cups of tea on the table

So who here reads January One? Who is as flummoxed as me by the rudeness of not-that-strangers?

Forget that the whiner actually knows her - that does add to the rudeness, sure, but it doesn't change the fundamental conceptual gap I'm seeing. People often say that the hardest customers to please are the ones for free stuff, and I don't understand why that should be, but it does seem to be the case. Somehow when something's free, people seem to have even more sense of entitlement than when they pay for it. Go figure.

But what really puzzles me is the different ways readers perceive these funny things we call blogs. In trying to explain blogs to the blogless, I generally describe them as a kind of informal opinion column crossed with emails to friends. If you consider them purely as columns, then one can sort of understand those commenters who feel the need to provide unsolicited feedback on the direction of the column itself - much as the Guardian Weekend magazine's letters column is always full of people moaning about the worth or otherwise of various departments. And even though the content on blogs is provided for free, it's possible to see that this might be sincerely meant. Constructive criticism and all that.

Deliberately disguising your identity, though, suggests that the commenter knows herself to be out of line. That she is consciously going beyond constructive criticism of a "product", to criticism of a friend. Of course there are always occasions when it's totally valid and helpful, maybe even necessary, to criticise a friend. But you wouldn't do it publicly, and anonymously, would you?

This is what is so strange to me. There are of course plenty of blogs that do not aim to be personal, or friendly. But I can't imagine a knitting blog - even one of a very narrow focus, one that reveals nothing of the writer's life beyond her fibre projects - that wasn't personal. Most knitblogs go beyond that, opening a window on the knitter's life, introducing him or her to the rest of us, offering and inviting friendship. I don't read knitblogs in the same way that I read newspaper columns, or any blog created solely to comment on the outside world (from cuteoverload to make!). I visit them, as I would visit a friend. And just as my friends may have good days and bad days, may be interested in (even consumed by) different things at different times, I take variations in focus and mood in my stride. Can you imagine lashing out at a friend, in public, because she's had the cheek to try talking about some huge news in her life that I don't personally care about?

Neither can I.

Posted by Robynn at 10:54 AM | Permalink | 2 cups of tea on the table

Another finished object: the moebius! Yay! Photos are still postponed. We will not talk about my incredible slackness. We will instead talk about books.

Right, em, so what I meant to say was: this (pilfered from Orata) is apparently a Librarything list of the most common unread books. Which is a distinctly iffy premise; I'm sure there are squillyuns of unreadable books that remain, thankfully, obscure. But I can't resist posting it because unlike the other such memes I've seen - 100 best scifi novels and the like; you will note that you've never seen such a list on this blog, and now you know why - in this list, I think there'll be a fair bit of bold type.

Bold = read, italics = started but not finished, strikethrough = couldn't stand.

# Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
# Anna Karenina
# Crime and punishment
# Catch-22
# One hundred years of solitude
# Wuthering Heights
# Life of Pi : a novel
# The name of the rose
# Don Quixote
# Moby Dick
# Ulysses
# Madame Bovary
# The Odyssey
# Pride and prejudice
# Jane Eyre
# A tale of two cities [currently sort of halfheartedly reading]
# The brothers Karamazov
# Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies
# War and peace
# Vanity fair [unless you mean the magazine...?]
# The time traveler’s wife
# The Iliad
# Emma
# The Blind Assassin
# The kite runner
# Mrs. Dalloway
# Great expectations
# American gods : a novel
# A heartbreaking work of staggering genius
# Atlas shrugged
# Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books
# Memoirs of a Geisha
# Middlesex
# Quicksilver
# Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West …
# The Canterbury tales [bits of, English class]
# The historian : a novel
# A portrait of the artist as a young man
# Love in the time of cholera
# Brave new world
# The Fountainhead
# Foucault’s pendulum
# Middlemarch
# Frankenstein
# The Count of Monte Cristo
# Dracula
# A clockwork orange
# Anansi boys : a novel
# The once and future king [don't ask me why I didn't finish it, I really don't know]
# The grapes of wrath
# The poisonwood Bible : a novel
# 1984
# Angels & demons [and PROUD]
# The inferno
# The satanic verses
# Sense and sensibility
# The picture of Dorian Gray
# Mansfield Park
# One flew over the cuckoo’s nest
# To the lighthouse
# Tess of the D’Urbervilles
# Oliver Twist
# Gulliver’s travels
# Les misérables
# The corrections
# The amazing adventures of Kavalier and Clay : a novel
# The curious incident of the dog in the night-time
# Dune
# The prince
# The sound and the fury
# Angela’s ashes : a memoir
# The god of small things
# A people’s history of the United States : 1492-present
# Cryptonomicon [but it's on my shelf, awaiting its turn]
# Neverwhere
# A confederacy of dunces
# A short history of nearly everything
# Dubliners
# The unbearable lightness of being
# Beloved : a novel
# Slaughterhouse-five
# The scarlet letter
# Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
# The mists of Avalon
# Oryx and Crake : a novel
# Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed
# Cloud atlas : a novel
# The confusion
# Lolita
# Persuasion
# Northanger abbey
# The catcher in the rye
# On the road
# The hunchback of Notre Dame
# Freakonomics
# Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance
# The Aeneid
# Watership Down
# Gravity’s rainbow
# In cold blood [but I don't remember it At All]
# White teeth
# Treasure Island
# David Copperfield
# The three musketeers
# Cold mountain
# Robinson Crusoe
# The bell jar
# The secret life of bees
# Beowulf : a new verse translation
# The plague
# The Master and Margarita
# Atonement
# The handmaid’s tale
# Lady Chatterley’s lover
# Underworld
# Little Women
# A brief history of time : from the big bang to black holes
# Stardust
# Jude the obscure
# The chronicles of Narnia
# Possession : a romance
# Fast food nation : the dark side of the all-American meal
# Never let me go
# The trial
# Kafka on the shore
# Bleak House
# Sons and lovers
# Alias Grace
# The Arabian nights [um, the kids version or the Victorian translation or, like, which one?]
# Baudolino
# Confessions
# The great Gatsby
# To kill a mockingbird
# Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass [I think we all knew that one...]
# The alchemist
# Candide, or, Optimism
# Snow falling on cedars
# Midnight in the garden of good and evil : a Savannah story
# Midnight’s children
# White Oleander
# A passage to India
# The elegant universe : superstrings, hidden dimensions, and …
# The house of the seven gables
# The lovely bones : a novel
# Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
# The amber spyglass
# The histories
# Swann’s way
# The shadow of the wind
# Fahrenheit 451
# Good omens
# Running with scissors : a memoir
# Everything is illuminated : a novel
# The divine comedy
# Paradise lost
# The English patient
# Uncle Tom’s cabin
# The Origin of Species

Posted by Robynn at 08:52 PM | Permalink | 3 cups of tea on the table