Book review- Start spinning by Maggie Casey

For Christmas I got myself this book:

Start spinning by Maggie Casey (Yarn and bobbin not included)

I learnt to spin by watching Youtube and using the "try it until it works" method. This is good and I am a big fan of the view that as long as you get what you are after then there is no wrong way of spinning (or knitting, or lots of other things provided you stay inside the law ;) ).

That said, I am also a nerd and like to know about different techniques and ways I can improve. This book is great for that. It would also be a fantastic book for anyone just starting to spin to supplement other ways of learning.

Information in here covers the basics of wool, basic drafting, twist, spindles and spindle spinning, wheel details and how to spin on one, plying, finishing, detailed drafting information, using handspun, fleece preparation and wheel maintenance. Loads of information with enough detail to be interesting and useful, but not so much you get bogged down.

The photos are the bit that really gets me excited about this book. They are clear, in colour and show the process being described step by step. A lot of the older books I have read/own have few photos, or black and white pictures that are not always easy to see properly. Spinning is not so easy to describe with words, but a photo makes you go from "huh what?" to "oh, I see!".

I would recommend this to anyone learning to spin, but also to anyone in a similar situation to me, you know how to spin and can make yarn, but don't really know all the details. I wish I had this when I was learning and still feel like it was money well spent.

WIP Wednesday and Yarn along

I really enjoyed talking about what I was reading last week, so I think Yarn along will become a regular meme for me. I hope you all don't mind as the books will be random, not necessarily knitting related.

I have been looking forward to this post as yesterday I went into The Works (discount UK bookshop) and picked up some super bargains.

First up the knitting- I am working on a boot sock. It was supposed to be part of my Dad's Christmas present, but I worked a short row heel and decided that it was too tight when I tried it on on a similar sized foot (clean). I am making them shorter so they will either be for me or go on my Christmas present pile. This is the second sock and I have just gone past the heel. I also havve my sock yarn blanket, which is now part of one a day and my Year of Project knee high sock on the go, but they get their own posts.

The reading, as you can see I bought a couple of books yesterday and was tempted by more. The Works (at least, the one in Loughborough but maybe others too) have lots of knitting and crochet books in at the minute. Several that would be great for beginners and some that have more advanced patterns. Because I have a tiny brain (more on that later) I can't remember the titles, but it is worth a browse. I was also tempted by a load of other books on all sorts of things, but managed to restrain myself to two.

Anyone who has counted will point out that there are three books in the picture, "The Marine Aquarium handbook" came from a charity shop. I picked this up because we have a poorly fish and the disease section is far better than in the fish keeping book I already own.
This is where I confess to my tiny brainness- I don't have a marine aquarium, I have a freshwater aquarium. And it took me until I got home and was looking at the book again to register that it said marine, even though I can read and I know that clown fish are marine fishes. In my defence I had flicked through the disease section and it looks like both sorts get similar illnesses. Based on the book I think the fishes will be fine.

Oh look, another cookbook! I really do love cookbooks, although I have to admit I don't use them all that much, I just love to read them. This one is called "The takeaway secret" and the title is pretty self explanatory really. It tells you how to cook meals in the style of takeaways, I am quite pleased with this because I do love a takeaway and they can get expensive. Another bonus is that I can make them with ingredients that I choose, rather than the iffy ingredients used by takeaways, chicken in particular (I overlook the lack of free range chicken in order to enjoy takeaways but I would prefer not to).
The book is divided into sections covering the different types of takeaway- burgers; kebabs; the chip shop; Indian main meals; Chinese main meals; pizza and pasta; sides, salads and sauces; breakfast and lunch and drinks and desserets, so as you can see, pretty much anything you fancy is covered.
The recipes look straightforward with enough detail that you know what you are doing. No pictures and the paper feels a rather cheap, but that is ok because I know what these things look like, and it was a cheap book (£1.99). I am thinking about getting it spiral bound as it will not lie open.

Finally, "Big girl knits", a total bargain at £4.99. Possibly if I didn't eat as many of the takeaways mentioned above I would not need this book, but I would have bought it anyway because there are some super patterns. Oddly I thought I had flicked through this before and been unimpressed, either I was blinded by my sock obsession or I was looking at some other book because I am already a big fan of this and I have not read it properly, just flicked through.
I will do a proper review of this once I have read it in more detail since it is a crafting book but in short- There is a handy section at the start which talks about choosing patterns, sizing, measuring, and adapting patterns to fit curves. The writing is amusing and easy to follow, written by people who know what they are talking about.
There are twenty five patterns to choose from, obviously no one will ever love all the patterns in a book, but I can certainly see some I want to make- Lift and separate, Curvalicious cardigan (I prefer the pictures in the book where it is a cardi) and Bombshell top my list and I am looking forward to patterns that have boob room. And three patterns out of a £5 book seems reasonable, especially when you add in the handy advice and the other patterns that I like.

Wow, I have talked a lot there! Did I mention that I love books? In fact if I had to choose between books and yarn I think my head would explode. (Actually to the suprise of everyone I think I would choose books, no wait, yarn, no wait, books)

Book review- Amigurumi knits

Firstly apologies for the photos, they are rather dark and as you can probably tell taken inside with a flash (lousy weather).

I thought I would have a quick chat about Amigurumi Knits by Hansi Singh.

I think a lot of people who are on Ravelry will have seen some of Hansi Singh's designs, all sorts of fantastic critters made in amazing detail.

This book has some of the best patterns (entirely my opinion), although I have to admit the range is a little odd, from fruit and veggies to sea critters and mythical beasts. The octopus is particularly super, you can see him on the front cover.

I had a go at two patterns, the snail and the Loch Ness monster they have been seen before as FOs.

The first thing I have to say is I would not really agree that they are Amigurumi. To me amigurumi is small, about the size of your palm, I made these in sock yarn and they are still pretty big, easily the size of my whole hand. If they were made in the suggested Cascade yarns they would be quite large soft toys. They are knitting though, no quibble there :D.

The patterns are massively detailed, which makes them look super but also means they take a long time to make, seriously a really long time. You think "ooh a little squishy toy that will take an hour or so", not even close! This is not a bad thing, but something you should maybe be warned about before starting.

The start of the book has a really detailed techniques section, this is very useful and saved me a lot of time as there were things I would need to have looked up online as I went.

I did struggle with both of the patterns I made at one point, it was  case of Ravelry to the rescue as it seems a lot of people had trouble with the same points I did. I think some sort of schematic might have been useful. You need to read the directions very carefully, maybe a couple of times and look hard at the pictures. In the end I couldn't get the belly right on Nessie so made up a new pattern for it.

One of the best things about these was the technique practise. There are a lot of short rows and grafting so if you need to warm up on these this would be a good way.

I would really recommend this book, but I do think you need to be aware of the points above. The toys are so very cute and definitely worth the effort.

Shop review- Tangent Treasures

When I stop being on a yarn diet I do so in style, this is the tale of my second yarn purchase this month, with another yesterday and possibly more at the weekend. More on yesterday's purchase when the postie brings my purchases.

We took a trip to get some pizza, it is special pizza from a wonderful pub with an Italian wood fired pizza oven. The first time we went a few months ago I spotted  a yarn shop on the way and insisted we stop, but because I am disorganised I never got as far as doing a review, I did take a photo, here it is:

They have a website too with location and opening times, that can be seen here. Opening times are very useful as it meant I could plan a trip for Sunday and time it for when the shop would be open. More shops should give out useful info like that. 

The shop is in Willington, Derbyshire (the pizza is in Repton at the Bull's Head if anyone wants to know)

The shop itself is tiny, but there is a lot in there yarns as well as a wide range of other gifts (not necessarily knitting related). I made a beeline for the sock yarn which has its own shelf but there are lots of other weights and types. Lots of very nice Collinette but also a range from basic acrylics to fancy yarns (I can't remember brands but lots of heavenly squishiness). They also stock knitpicks needles.

The owner is lovely, we chatted about yarns and magazines. There is even a man chair to sit your other half in while you browse.

Prices seem pretty standard, the Jitterbug I bought the first time was a little more expensive than online, but cheaper once you consider postage. The yarn I bought this time was the same as its online prices. And as always you get the advantage of being in an actual shop talking to people and squishing the yarns, which I always think is worth a little extra cost.

On to my purchase, a ball of Katia ole in blues and purples.

I need to make at least one more trip as they have one more sock yarn I have not tried but quite fancy, and then I can just go and browse the lovely yarns.

Oh and the pizza was delicious!

Magazine review- SImply knitting May 2011

I don't buy knitting magazines very often, they tend to seem a little expensive, but this one had a photo of stitch markers from my shop in, so it seemed rude not to (also I admit I wanted to wave it at people going "Look! Look!")

The thing I like least about this (and many other magazines) is that it comes wrapped in a plastic bag to contain the "free" gift. As well as additional plastic that the World does not need this means you can't look inside. All the larger patterns have a picture on the front, so you can sort of see what is in there, but not what yarn you need or the construction methods. The free pattern book also sits on top of the pictures so you have to stand in the shop shaking it around to see the pictures.

The non pattern content is fairly interesting, but took less than an hour to read fully.

There is a very good section at the back showing how to do the basic stitches for knit and crochet, it is a good "all you need to get started" type of guide.

There are a lot of patterns of different sizes and skill levels. Obviously it is personal taste but there is a jumper and a pair of socks that I might make.

I have a general rule for pattern books- there should be at least four things I will definitely make to spend £10 to £15 on a book, and ideally some others that I might make or some useful information. This means that spending £5 on the magazine it needs to have two patterns I will make, which worked out in this case but explains why I rarely buy magazines.

The gift with this issue was an Alan Dart pattern book for a chess set, which is cute but I am never likely to make it, and a pair of short 4mm wooden straight needles. The needles are nice, much better than the plastic ones you usually get with magazines so these I will probably use.

Shop review- Great British Yarns

Since I have done a little yarn shopping I have a shop to review- hurrah!

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This one is an online shop, Great British Yarns is currently online only and describes itself as a shop selling lots of British knitting and crochet goodies. This is ironic really, as I went there because they are the only UK shop I have found that stocks Knitpicks (which is very much not British), and I really wanted to see what it was like.

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So, the good- A nice range of yarns, including some indie dyers and interesting yarns like the water wheel spun organic British merino. Obviously the Knitpicks is a huge attraction.

The website is fairly good, the side menu makes it easy to navigate.

The prices seem normal, no real surprises either way there. There is a good clearance section with a lot of Rowan and some other yarns.

I didn't really delve as I was just looking for yarns but they sell some accessories, books, magazines, fabric and kids stuff too.

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The not so good (because bad seems like a strong word and maybe I am demanding)- Some items needed a lot of clicking to get to the actual buy this bit.

The indie dyer range was somewhat limited in terms of colours available, although this might just have been current stock levels.

For me the thing I liked least was the postage- there is a flat rate of £3.50 for UK shipping, I looked this up and even allowing for a postage bag it is enough to ship over a kilo of yarn. If you are buying a single skein it is rather steep as you are considerably over paying, of course the flip side is that if you are buying A LOT of yarn you may get a bargain, but I can't afford that much yarn in one go. They do suggest splitting the cost by combining your order with others but this seems a bit like pushy selling.

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The summary- I would shop there again, especially if I was after Knitpicks or something interesting, but only if I could afford a decent amount in one go, or convince someone else to split the shipping with me (without bullying them).

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And since it is an online shop I don't have a picture of the shop, so here is another photo of the lovelies I bought.

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I am having a dilemma about what to make with the undyed one, I might do a post looking for opinions soon. The red is already wound into a ball for socks.

Shop review- Along came Polly

I have been buying yarn again, but this is absolutely the last until after Christmas!

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I do have a reasonable excuse- I was visiting my sister and family on Saturday for my niece's birthday party, I needed to go into town anyway and of course since we were practically next door to the yarn shop I had to pop it in a check it out.

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I don't have a photo of the shop because a- I am rubbish and forgot my camera, and b- it was dark anyway. They do have a website at www.alongcamepolly.co.uk (although I am told it is not really up and running) and a facebook page. The shop is in Stroud, Gloucestershire and I have to say I am so glad I went in.

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The shop is lovely, lots of choice, and a wall of sock yarn (can anyone say yarny heaven?). They have a huge selection of knitpro goodies too and a wide range of yarns and books in all sorts of weights and colours. I am also told they are getting a range of hand dyed sock yarn in a week or so, so I missed out on seeing that, but have already dropped some not very subtle hints to my sister that it would be a good place to find a Christmas present.

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The owner was also fantastic, we had a super chat about Ravelry and many things yarny (my poor OH just had to stand there listening to us rabbit on in what must seem like a different language)

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I picked up a ball of Trekking in gorgeous purples. I have not used this before so thought I should give it a try, aparently it is even more hard wearing than Regia and Opal. Some merino sock (can't remember the brand, but it was a new one on me) was trying to seduce me, but I preferred this colourway.

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The only downside might be that I am not sure where you park when you go. We left the car at another shop, but that seems a bit cheeky if you are just there for the yarn. However, I suspect there must be car parks in the area.
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Don't let that put you off, it may not even be a valid point as it is based on the fact I don't know the town at all. Go visit, be seduced yarn style.

Yarn shop review- Yarn in Beston

It does occur to me that these reviews are not overly helpful if you don't live in the UK, but I promise there are some nice pictures in this one (prepare to drool).

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On Saturday I went to the Nottingham bead show with some of my knitting group friends. I was interesting to see all the shiny beads, but I think we came to the conclusion that beading was not really for us, better to stick with knitting. There were a couple of yarn stalls- one very high end (£12 for 50g balls), and one at the other end of the scale, with mostly acrylic. Sadly none of these grabbed me/were in my budget so I left yarn free.

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There were cupcakes though, so we each had one of those, lemon, earl grey and mint chocolate- delicious!

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On leaving the bead show we headed to Yarn in Beeston (part of Nottingham). This is a palace of squishy loveliness. This picture shows it quite well- see all those square boxes on the back wall? crammed with yarn!

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A lovely range of yarns in lots of colours and squishiness. Including quite a few of sock type yarns, I was a very happy bunny indeed! There are a few knitted samples, which helps to see what yarns will look like knitted up, but I think it was the range of yarns that impressed me most, I have only been in one other shop that offered such good choice (although that may just be that I need to go in more yarn shops!).
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Prices are about RRP, but there were a few baskets of reduced yarns at the front, so bargains can be had if there is something that grabs your fancy. They even sell a yarn that looks like fuzzy sausages- cue hysterical laughter from us and dirty looks from the other lady in the shop (a customer, not the owner).
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I would say it sits nicely in the mid range, between the two stalls that were at the bead show- nice yarns but reasonable prices. There are also some Unicorn fart (seriously fancy yarn, made from luxury fibres, very expensive, you know, as if it was spun from the fart of a unicorn) and acrylic to cover the higher and lower ends if that is your preference.
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And because I am weak and unable to stick to any form of yarn diet I bought some yarn. Two skeins of Mirasol Chirapa in purples for socks and a skein of Mirasol Miski. I blame Laura for the Miski, she went "ooooh" and put the skein in my hand. Ooooh indeed, it is 100% baby llama and so soft; and a gorgeous teal, it is destined to become a hat.
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The sock have already been cast on, which is bad as the Christmas knits are far from finished, but I couldn't resist the purpleness.

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And for added incentive to visit there is lovely deli next door (I bought some local mead) and a good fabric shop down the road.

Yarn shop review- Addicted 2 knitting

This week I finally have another shop review as I have been breaking my self imposed yarn purchase ban. This was a little treat for me as I had a fail on a rainbow themed swap- my parcel never turned up. To be honest I was looking for an excuse to try some mini mochi so it all worked out quite well really.

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I will get to the yarn in a minute, the shop first:

I found the appropriately named Addicted 2 knitting via a Google search. I was looking for the specific yarn and they had it at a good price.

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It is perhaps not the most beautiful website, but well worth a look as the prices seems good and the yarns are well illustrated with photos of each colourway. They also carry a good range of tasty yarn, including Zauberballs, Fyberspates, Artesano and Manos del Uruguay. There are also some cheaper options such as Opal. I had to resist the temptation to fill my virtual basket!

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Delivery was great, a reasonably priced £1.60 or free with a spend of over £30. My parcel came first class, so I had it less than 48 hours after ordering. The packaging was good, well wrapped up in a plastic delivery bag so no chance of damage (although I do prefer packaging I can recycle or reuse).

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I would say they are definitely worth a look, good prices and service and tasty yarn, what more could you want?!

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And of course, I couldn't post this without a picture of the yarn. It is delicious, the colours are fantastic and it is soft and even machine washable. I will do a proper yarn review once I have used it to make something (socks of course, in January most likely), but for now here it is in its balled state:

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Shop review- Uppingham yarns

I had to rectify my lack of yarn shopping, so jumped on the chance to go on a yarn shop road trip with a couple of the knit group ladies.

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We went over to Uppingham yarns, as the name suggests it is in Uppingham, just South of Rutland Water.

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This shop is really one for the machine knitters, there is one smallish room of hand knitting yarn, quite a bit of acrylic. Some nice alpaca and a few other bits to choose from though. Definite shortage of delicious sock yarns when we visited.

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For the machine knitters there's three (yes THREE) rooms jammed with cones, everything you can think of- all sorts of fibres and colours. Even novelty sparkly ones and stretchy ones.

The was also a bit of spinning fibre, silk mostly in various forms including bricks (I think someone on Ravelry was looking for those).

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I don't know the going rate for machine cones, although it seemed fairly bargainous in terms of "ohhh, that's a lot of yarn for a smallish amount of money". The hand knitting stuff seemed fairly standard price wise, obviously it depends on the fibre, but in the region of £4 for 50g. Prices and range are on the website if you want to see before you visit to squish. I would probably recommend that for hand knitters, especially if it is going to be a long drive, just so you know what you are going to find.

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This made us laugh, knitted bullet proof vests anyone?

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And because I can't go in a yarn shop without buying anything, I got two balls of "super alpaca" in a purply brown type colour. It is a nice yarn, but I chose it mostly because I thought the name was awesome, it gives me the urge to draw an alpaca in a cape!

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Because I am a little dopey (and was distracted by heading to the pub for some chips) I forgot to take a photo of the shop itself, there is a picture on their website though.

Uppingham also has an excellent sweet shop, one with big jars of sweeties, definitely worth a visit.

Shop review- McA Direct

Last week I had run out of things to review, so obviously the answer was to do some yarn shopping! Actually that was not the only reason, I have been charged with the task of making some boot socks that do not wear through in about 4 wears and I thought Regia 6 ply might be the answer.

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Since I do not have a huge amount of LYS access, and what I do have did not stock it I turned to the magical provider of yarn that is the internet (a dangerous place to venture with a credit card in hand).

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I opted for a shop I had used before, McA direct, mainly because they do free shipping if you spend over £10 (good point number 1- I love free shipping!). Also because they had what I wanted in the required sludgy green.

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Price wise is pretty standard, the Regia was £3.95 which I think is a reasonable price, maybe not the best, but pretty good.

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The range stocked is huge, lots of brands and colours, with decent photos and shade cards. There's lots of accessories and things to look at too. Obviously nothing can quite compare to being there in person and having a squish of the yarn, but that's buying online for you.

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The thing that has got me gushing about them the most is this- I (being a bit dopey) didn't order enough yarn to make the socks, I got 2 balls, need three. So yesterday I placed a second order for another ball of yarn (and some other goodies to get over the £10) and it arrived THIS MORNING! Seriously, less than 24 hours for yarn to go from the computer screen to my hot little hand.

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With service like that how could I not give them a big thumbs up?!

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And because I like pictures, here's what I bought- 6 ply Regia in green, a 2.5mm, 100cm circular and some purple beads.

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Book review- Hand dyeing yarn and fleece

This week it is all about the book Hand dyeing yarn and fleece by Gail Callahan. Amazon linky here.

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I have not had this book long, a little over a month, and would usually wait a bit longer before doing a review so I have time to use the book quite a bit and get a feel for how useful it really is. No need with this one, I love it already!

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There is loads of info in here, and it all seems to be the useful kind of stuff that sometimes you can't find in other places. In particular for me it was the dip dyeing info that swung it, the other books I had bought did not give any details on it and I wanted to know!

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The book starts with the pretty much standrad details of setting up for dyeing, health and safety, dye types and colour. No big suprises here but nicely written with plenty of pictures to keep it interesting.

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For me the best bit of this book is the method instructions. Every step is clearly illustrated with lovely pictures and good written instructions. Although some of the methods use microwaving rather than stovetop steaming which is my preferred method it is simple to transfer the techniques across.

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Finally there are some patterns given to show off the hand dyed yarns, including the dyeing instructions (a range of methods are used across the patterns). I have not used any of these but they seem well written and clear. I would not buy the book just for the patterns as there are only eight (fine for a dyeing book, less so for a pattern book) and while nice they are not really my personal FO style.

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Price wise I paid about £8, I would definately say that is good for what I have got from the book. I can also see myself coming back to it often to try out different methods so will have got my moenys worth out of it.

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A final good point is that the book is spiral bound inside the cardboard cover. It might seem odd to mention this but it really is fantasically helpful as it means the book will lie flat on the table without having anything to hold it open. This makes it much easier to follow as you work. The only downside to this is that as you look through the first time some of the pages are a little stuck together where the holes for the bindings are. Careful separation is needed to avoid tearing. Once you have been through the book once this is not a problem.

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And since I don't like to post without pictures, some raspberry yarn dip dyed using the method in the book:

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Starting to run out of things to review, will have to get knitting or get myself to a new yarn shop!

Tool review- Drop spindle starter kit

Something differnet to review this week, I thought I would talk about my drop spindle starter kit. I bought it from ebay about a year ago, there are a lot of similar ones available, but I went for this one.

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The kit contains an Ashford top whorl drop spindle, instruction sheet and about 100g of merino fibre in four colours.

The spindle weighs about 75g, so it is quite heavy and most suited to thicker yarns, which is fine for beginners but not as great once you get going. Although if you get into it you are likely to buy more spindles as there is a huge range of nice ones to choose from. There is a little bit of roughness to the wood on mine in a couple of places, but not much and it has not affected the spinning at all.

The instruction sheet is not great, but to be honest spindling is not really something that is easy to write down. Either having someone to show you, or looking online at YouTube type videos is an easier way to go. The instructions do make sense once you have already got the hang of it, but that is not overly helpful.

The fibre in the kit seems to spin well. I have heard suggestions that beginners should use something with a longer staple (length of flibrey fluff) than merino, but I found it to be fine. Having multiple colours is nice as you can get some interesteing stripng once you get going. 100g seems to be enough to have a decent play with and decide if you want to buy more.

The price for the kit is good, you can pay about the same for the spindle alone and with this one you get fibre to play with too. The seller also usually has a range of colours, so you can pick which one you prefer and are more likely to use.

Spindle:

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It is possible to spin thin, even on a heavy spindle, just more of a pain to join lengths of fibre together.

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In all the kit is good, it got me into spinning. I would guess that similar ones are just as good, but can only comment on the one I tried. There are lots of other alternatives for trying out spindling, like borrow one or make one from a CD and a stick; but if you want a set, or want to give one as a gift this is a good way to go.

Yarn review- Lion Brand Wool Ease

I am quite prepared to admit to having become some what of a yarn snob since I discovered all the lovely yarns out there in the world. However, sometimes what you need is not fancy yarn, but something practical.

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Wool ease sits nicely in this category, while still being good to work with.

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It is 80% acrylic and 20% wool, nice and soft and best of all seriously easy care. It can be machine washed and even tumbled according to the label. It is also quite affordable, about £3.50 for 85g, and has a big range of colours.

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My first contact with it was for making my first ever sweater, I think it did a pretty good job of it. The colours, price and easy care aspects were what swayed me to it.

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There is a little squeakiness as you knit, especially if you are using acrylic needles, and if you are truly adverse to acrylics you would most likely find it too shiny. Availability in the UK might be about to take a tumble as the company that imports it is closing down to move back to the U.S., they are currently having a big sale but no word on if anyone will be taking over the supply.

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I bought a bit of a mountain of it for making socks as Christmas presents, unfortunately it is not so good for socks. The ones I made last year got holes in less than six months so it has come off my sock list.

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I am thinking of making a blanket with the yarn mountain as there is not enough of each colour for a whole large project and if I stripe green and red I will look like an elf!

Yarn review- Wendy Happy

A while back I bought two balls of Wendy Happy because I fancied trying out some bamboo yarn- I had heard it was meant to be good for temperature regulation and naturally antibacterial, figured thst would be excellent for socks.

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The yarn is 75% bamboo and 25% nylon, it has a suprisingly silky feel, coupled with a sort of cottoniness (yes, today I am making up words!).

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I was ready to give this a somewhat unenthusiastic review, having made two pairs of socks and not been blown away by them- in particular I found the ribbing did not hold up very well. However, I used the last ball up making some baby gift items in an attempt to destash and have had a definite change of heart. The items have knit up nicely, amd I am particularly pleased with the Pisces colourway I used.

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The yarn does tend to be somewhat splitty, especially if it has been untwisted a little, for example during the cast on, however this is not too bad it just needs to be watched while knitting.

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Pricewise it is pretty reasonable with a 100g ball for between five and six pounds, more affordable than a lot of sock yarns. Quite a few colourways are available, although they do all seem to have some degree of striping and/or varigation.

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The patterning shows up really well on this baby hat, knitted with the Pisces colourway:

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Having had a good experience the second time round I would be tempted to buy the yarn again but would not use it for socks, it makes nice baby gifts and might work on scarves and shawls depending on the arrangement of the varigation.

Book review- Stitch N' bitch Nation

I think most people that knit must have heard of the Stitch N' bitch books. I am not sure if they can totally be credited with making knitting cool thingy that happened a few years ago, but I think they definitely helped (lets face it, its always a giggle to say bitch with a legitimate excuse). I bought the first book for my sister when she was learning to knit, and the second for myself about a year later when I was learning.

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Amazon linky: Stitch N' bitch Nation

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I picked this up because shortly after learning I wanted to make a sweater. I rather liked the Jessie's Flames pattern so I bought the book, I still haven't made it but have used the book for quite a few other things.

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So what do you get:

• I think the best bit of this book is the first section which tells you about altering knitting patterns to fit or to get them the way you want. Instructions for changing the sizes and adding/removing details are all in there, which is definitely useful.
• There are a good helping of patterns, as always with books there will be some you like and some you don't, I've made a handful, although that might be because I had the book if you see what I mean.
• Scattered through the book are little helpful hints and ideas, like how to make sock blockers, ideas for using the ball band to help you out. I love these, very useful.
• There are also a few pages telling the stories of some stitch and bitch groups that have been set up, these are kinda nice to read but once you have read them that's them done with, also as it is an American book it is obviously focused on groups from the US.
• At the back there is a section giving a little refresher course on the basic techniques, I found this very helpful as I was still learning and kept forgetting what instructions meant, having a hard copy meant I didn't have to start up the computer and google it every time.

The writing style is fun and cheery, very easy to read and follow. The price is also pretty good, especially if you have a look around at the various book sellers.

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I made these arm warmers as one of my first projects with decent yarn using a pattern from the book:

Overall the book is useful, but really for beginners/early stage knitters. Would recommend it if you fall into this category or if you like the patterns. I can never bring myself to buy pattern books unless there are a lot of things I will make- got to balance that project to bookshelf space ratio!

There are quite a few others in the range as well- the original, a crochet option, one with patterns for men and an "extreme" one, not had a rummage through those yet!

Yarn review- Colinette Jitterbug

At the start of the year I bought some Jitterbug in the Forest colourway from Get Knitted (review at some point) to keep me amused during Jury service. It was, and probably still is the prettiest yarn I have owned.

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Jitterbug is a merino yarn and sold as a sock yarn, it is a bit thicker than many other sock yarns, coming in at 267m per 100g hank (usually around 400m for sock yarns), so two skeins would probably be needed to make socks with some left over. I made a Travelling Woman shawl with a fair chunk left over for sock yarn blanket squares, there would not have been enough for an extra pattern repeat though.

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The yarn is lovely to work with and has the advantage of being labelled as easy care (wash at 30 degrees and dry on low). I have not tried this out yet, and as I made a scarf it would be no hassle to handwash, but for socks this is a definite plus so I hope it is true, no way I am handwashing lots of socks!

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As yarns go it is quite reasonably priced, it is about £10 for a 100g skein, a little more expensive than some options, but also not the most expensive by a long way.

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There are a lot of colourways available, they all have similar short colour repeats but with wide variations in colour, a drawer of beautiful socks (or anything else) could definitely be made.

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In the skein:

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Knitted up into a travelling woman:

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The yarn took blocking well and I wore it most days during the winter once it was ready, obviously it is too hot at the minute but it is waiting by the door for scarf season.

In spite of having a lot of use there has been very little fuzzing up of the knitting (not sure what the technical term for that should be, you know, when it goes all fuzzy)

Unfortunately when I went back for more the shop did not have the same colourway, there are lots of suppliers online so I will have a look around for some more. I will most likely buy some more in the future, so I would recommend it, but will probably use it for scarves/shawls rather than socks due to its fairly thick nature.

Book review- The Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook

This week I am going with a book review. I am a HUGE fan of crafty books, so have plenty of material for these.

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I mentioned The Twisted Sister's Sock Workbook by Lynne Vogel in my handpainting post last week. I bought it for info about dyeing and spinning mainly, with the bonus of some sock patterns thrown in.

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The section on dyeing has been excellent, it is where I have got most of my handpainting knowledge from. There's a decent amount about different colours and mixing as well as techniques for hot and cold pour dyeing. The methods deal with fibre, but work just as well for yarn. It is an American book, but the dyes can either be substituted for other brands of acid dyes (or in fact any dye) or the ones used in the book can be ordered online.

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The section on spinning is good, although not what I was hoping for. Details about organising fibre to get the best from the colours are given but no actual details on how to spin.

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The final section deals with knitting socks in a brilliant way. A simple sock pattern is given, then followed up with ways each section (cast on, bind off, ribbing, heel, toes) can be done differently to enable you to get socks exactly how you want them to be. Instructions for knitting socks flat are also given.

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This is a book that has already had quite a lot of use, and is one that I go back to. It would be a good choice for someone wanting to have a go at dyeing or wanting to start making socks without following a specific pattern, maybe as a basis for designing socks. Definately worth the money.

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I wanted to post a photo of the book, but I was not sure about the issues with taking a picture as it is coprighted material. A quick google suggested it would be ok, but in the interest of not getting in trouble I thought I would stick with an Amazon link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Twisted-Sisters-Sock-Workbook-Designing/dp/1931499160/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1276585546&sr=8-1

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To brighten up the post, a picture of some hand dyed, hand spun, hand knit socks which owe a lot to the book:

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Yarn review- Opal 4 ply

I have run out of shops to review, but since I quite like doing these I thought I would move on to other things, this week it is yarn.

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I think this was the first non acrylicy yarn I bought when I started knitting.

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It is made from 75% wool and 25% polyamide, is machine washable and knits up on 2.5mm needles. 100g gives approximately 425m and there is a huge range of colours, although they all seem to be self patterning to some degree. There are also themed ranges like Harry Potter and Rainforest.

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I bought mine off ebay a couple of years ago, so I can't remember what I paid, but a quick google shows the price ranges from about £6.50 to £8.50 for a 100g ball. I think that makes it one of the cheaper sock yarns available. It is also pretty good value, I got two pairs of short ankle socks out of one ball with even enough scraps for some sock yarn blanket squares.

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It is not the softest and most smooshy of yarns, but it makes comfy socks with no itchiness or tickling. I think this is more than reasonable since a very soft yarn would not last more than a few minutes as socks.

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The socks have stood up well to wearing so far, there are slightly fuzzy felty bits at the points of high wear, but that seems reasonable and no holes so far (fingers crossed).

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Opal also do a 6 ply range and a 4 ply Schafpate range which uses wool from a rare breed sheep (German Schafpate).

Test knit- Symphony vs moebius

I have decided that Friday will be finished object day. From next week it will help me keep track of my 52 in 52 challenge, but this week it is to show the results of a test knit carried out using the blue laceweight.
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The pattern is called Symphony vs moebius, its a very simple lace pattern, but produces a pretty finished shawl with a pointed section and a moebius twist:
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A close up of the lace pattern:
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For anyone interested in it, I have put my test knit comments up on my Ravelry project page.
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