Well, I guess it's just been too long since we had a server snafu, so we were due.

Because of server migration stuff, details of orders placed over the past week and not yet dispatched are... missing in cyberspace. Now, I have ways of tracking down the most vital details (who wants what and where they live). But it's, um, a bit messy. So we're going to be a bit slow in processing these orders (around 10 are affected I think). I'm really sorry. We're working on getting it sorted out.

Just as we were starting to catch up from Ally Pally, too.

*sniff*

Posted by Robynn at 11:14 AM | Permalink | 1 cups of tea on the table

I'm a sucker for pretty things, especially pretty useful things. (Bet you couldn't tell that from the shop.) Spinning, now, spinning has lots of pretty things. Beautiful handmade spindles! Sparkly batts! So for a while I've been thinking about getting a few spindles etc into the shop; but I don't like to sell anything I don't know how to use. Well, naturally that meant I had to learn how to spin.

Claire of Sublime Spindles heard me muttering something to this effect, and very kindly sent me a beginner's spindle to try out. Mel even more kindly volunteered to show me how, and even brought me a bit of blue-faced leicester wool to practise with.

So there we were, yesterday afternoon, drafting and twisting, drafting and twisting. And frowning. And maybe swearing a bit. And discovering the full meaning of "drop spindle" (good thing Claire's tools are so robust!). And you know what else I discovered?

Spinning brings out the worst in me. I don't like doing things I'm bad at, and obviously, being a complete beginner, I'm bad at it. I'm not saying I am unusually bad for a beginner, I'm sure I can get good with practice, and of course everyone needs practice. But I'm impatient. And I hate feeling clumsy. Spindles are pretty much guaranteed to make you feel clumsy, till you get the hang of them, unless you're graced with three hands and/or an unnatural degree of co-ordination, neither of which is the case for me.

So it makes me crabby. And that actually strikes me as funny. I can just hear myself saying all those things that make me so frustrated in the mouths of stubborn non-knitters:

"Oh I don't have the patience to do that."
"I tried it once but it was too hard."
"Really, why wouldn't you just buy yarn/socks/a sweater?"

Funny, right? I am Just Like Them. An instant gratification, shallow, uninterested sort of person. Tch. Whodathunkit.

The thing is, learning to spin is so much harder than learning to knit. With knitting, the basic movements are really simple; it may take a while for them to get comfortable, and automatic, but you can make decent progress even while it feels awkward. With spinning, the important thing is to learn to control those basic movements perfectly. And man, that's hard. I am not good at perfectionism. My socalled yarn comes out too twisty, or not twisted enough; too fat, too thin, it keeps breaking, then it's all lumpy... I can see, sort of, where I'm going wrong, but I don't really want to have to go back all the time and fix it. Feh. See? Hopelessly impatient.

Well, I understand the basic concept now, and I guess that's good enough to be going on with, so yes, there will soon be spindles in the shop. (Yay!) But I'm not sure spinning will ever compete with knitting as my leisure activity of choice. This is a bit of a bugger, as (a) I really like handspun yarn, and (b) I did splurge - perhaps foolishly - on two really pretty batts that I may never get good enough to actually do anything with. (Then again, I doubt it will be too hard to find someone to take those off my hands.)

No, I'm not giving up yet. Apart from anything else, I'd feel like such a brat if I let myself be put off by the blindingly obvious fact that learning a new skill requires a little effort. And it has occurred to me that spindle practice might be just the thing to do at 4am when my sore leg (sciatica, bleh) wakes me up and demands a little exercise. I'm going to make some yarn, dammit... but I don't have to like it.

Posted by Robynn at 01:25 PM | Permalink | 9 cups of tea on the table

Phew. Ally Pally. Thassa big show. Not as crazy hectic as iKnit (thank gods, after all there are four whole days of it!) but man. Big show. Lotsa people. Very overwhelming. Wanna see?

Well, you can't actually see, because we don't have any pictures of the crowds, and you'd have to actually walk around the halls to understand just how much there is, but this was the view from (almost) our stand:

And this was the stand itself, with bonus pregnant lady:

I keep thinking I'm not looking pregnant, just rather fat, and then I see a picture like that. Huh. Anyway it turns out, being pregnant at one of these things is quite a boon. (Well, it wasn't at iKnit, because of the severe exhaustion; but I'm mostly over that now.) I took full advantage of Pregnancy Privilege to sit down and knit a lot, while lovely Armin jumped up to restock needles, take payment etc, and that really helped. I felt pretty rude sitting down, but it couldn't be helped; sciatica, ouch. So all in all I reckon I got through it rather better than last year.

And all the knitting time definitely helped to keep me sane and enjoying myself. As usual I didn't get much time to wander around and look at things (though I did make a point of checking out the exhibitions - always a highlight - and squished a little Shilasdair handspun cashmere, oh my!). But I had a blast meeting online friends and customers. I won't start naming name, there were far too many; but two people do get a special mention.

First, Serife rocked my socks (sorry) by bringing the first baby knitting. Look how cute!

And then twoblackcats (Ravelry link) showed up wearing my jacket! I was shocked and thrilled and amazed, all at the same time. She must have been so warm (I couldn't bear to wear anything woolly in there) but said she'd just finished it on Friday and had to show it off. Damn fine work. And it was incredibly exciting to see a finished version not by me, not even in my size, that actually fit and looked like a proper jacket. Finally, I can breathe... the pattern works!

So that was that for this year. And for quite a while, probably. I doubt I'll be doing any shows next year - they're exhausting enough even without a baby to take care off - though maybe that means I'll get to attend as a civilian, which would be rather fun. Meanwhile, the only way to see Purlescence wares in person will be to attend one of the Open House tea parties (last Saturday of every month; email for details). Armin is full of ideas for making my stockroom a bit more welcoming and enhancing the Open House experience... so let's see how all that works out.

Posted by Robynn at 03:18 PM | Permalink | 6 cups of tea on the table

Just a quickie PS - this being National Knitting Week, it is of course also time for the mega yarnfest that is the Knitting & Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace. Running from Thursday to Sunday, as if you didn't know, and full of fibrelicious excitement.

We'll be there, on stand M32, so please come and say hi; be sure to introduce yourself (and please forgive me if I'm not very quick to recognise you or your name... I get a bit overwhelmed at these things, but really do want to meet you) and inspect the progress of my bump, if that takes your fancy. (Definitely pregnant bump-shaped, now, not just fat.)

Okay. Nuff chatting. I gotta go do some packing. These expos take a lot of preparation y'know.

Eep!

Posted by Robynn at 07:40 PM | Permalink | 3 cups of tea on the table

On the needles, that is. I'm sure you know that Innocent are again running their Big Knit charity campaign - for every adorably little woolly hat that adorns a smoothie bottle, 50p gets donated to Age Concern, to help keep elderly people warm over the winter. We all know how energy prices are going up (ouch) so this is needed now more than ever.

The deadline is approaching very rapidly, on 17 October, but then it doesn't take much time to knock out a little hat or two, does it? Glamorous knitters like us are also no doubt totally adept and not in need of any sort of pattern assistance... *but*... I was totally tickled by the little designer hatlets in this month's Knitting magazine (issue 56, Nov 08). Rabbit hat by Debbie Bliss, for instance! I'm told the patterns are due to be published on the Knitting website, although as of today I haven't been able to find them. There's also an adorable little strawberry hat pattern on the Innocent site.

It's National Knitting Week. Get in some speed knitting practice, in public for preference, and do us all proud.

PS - Ooh, I almost forgot, if you're of a competitive bent you might want to check out two competitions on this project.

Get fruity and enter Simply Knitting's "most creative/most fruity" contest, to win a hamper full of yarn (fresh!); or win a month's supply of smoothies via Let's Knit. You can drop off your entries at the magazines' stands at Ally Pally.

Posted by Robynn at 07:18 PM | Permalink

"Don't judge a book by its cover," they say. But of course we all do, and that's why publishers have such a specific book jacket design strategy. If a particular book about, say, elephant trainers has been successful, and another comes along, then even if they're quite different, chances are the publisher will make the new book's jacket the same colour as the previous bestseller. And so mini-genres are born, often to the great chagrin of the authors concerned, and frequently not in service of the actual books.

Knit lit seems to be quite a booming mini-genre. It's just a branch of chick lit of course, but one with very specific appeal to those of us who are fond of playing with string. I was very excited to read the Friday Night Knitting Club when it came out. But alas, I hated it! Badly written, ridiculous premise, cardboard cutout characters, hopelessly tearjerking and unwarranted ending... just contrived in every way. And even though I know better, that put me off reading more knitting novels. I don't read a lot of chick lit at the best of times (though some of it is fab, and I do maintain Jane Austen started the whole thing), and I just couldn't be bothered with more cheesy, contrived drivel.

So Divas Don't Knit sat on my shelf for quite a while before I finally picked it up, but recently I've been reading a lot of fluff (yay Georgette Heyer!) and was in the mood to give it a go... with only a little trepidation.

Turns out I'm loving it. Funny! Engaging! Relatable characters! A plot that bears at least some tenuous relation to reality! And did I mention funny? It's great stuff. Has thoroughly revived my interest in knit lit; I'm even thinking about exploring those knitting mystery novels. So tell me. Have you read any novels with knitting in that you think are worth a shot, and will not make me want to down shots or fire shots at the author?

Posted by Robynn at 08:22 PM | Permalink | 11 cups of tea on the table