Wow, people have been really generous. The hats have already started pouring in so I thought I would share those that I have received with you. Well some of them, this will keep me in blog fodder for days!
First though, this arrived in the post the other day.
You see, I emailed Innocent Drinks and told them about my prize draw for all of the lovely people knitting me hats and (rather cheekily as they are already giving 50p per hat) asked them if they would donate a prize to the draw. And they said yes! They really are lovely people.
So here is the Innocent Smoothie Recipe Book that you could win if you send me a hat or two. Surely that on its own is worth it?
Mind you, I have been positively swamped by hats already.
These are from the lovely Lin. She was the first to send me some. I'd barely cast on for my first one when these showed up in the post.
I particularly love her tufts on the hats, they are really sweet.
Next I received these hats from Sally.
And that's only half of them!
Here are some of the ones that I made:
And there are still hats from Hilda, Jill and more from Sally to show. Unfortunately the pictures that I took last week didn't come out very well so I am waiting for a bit of sunshine to take some better ones.
And I've been looking through my stash to find nice prizes so come on, knit me a few hats, it'll be worth it!
That title should have got some of you going. I know that there are an awful lot of Rowan Calmer fans out there. People who have knitted Audrey, Elspeth, Maris and more.
But not me. I offically dislike Calmer. I've tried to like it, really I have. I mean I have stash in Calmer. But I really dislike Calmer and shall, from now on, be keeping away from the stuff.
Why, you ask? Well remember that ages ago I knit Iris from Rowan 35 in Debbie Bliss Cotton Angora? Well I decided that I wanted another one in Cream to go with some of my summer dresses and to wear at my friend's wedding this summer. So I thought I would make it in Calmer seeing as that's what it's meant to be knitted in.
Now I had a run in with Calmer a few years ago when I cast on to make Audrey and found the yarn really elastic, my tension was all over the shop, so I threw it aside in disgust. But this time I thought that I am a more mature knitter. My tension has changed as I hold my yarn differently from how I used to so I should be fine.
So I cast on with the Cream Calmer. And thought it looked rather nice. And yes, I did swatch and I was fine.
I did think that it looked a little bumpier than I would normally like.
But I figured that it was just a case of giving it a good blocking and it would be fine. So I jauntily knit away and got both sleeves done. And then for some odd reason I thought that I would block them before casting on the fonts and back to get that out of the way.
That's when I discovered this:
And no, it's not because of how I took the picture:
Yes, I am out by nearly 2 inches between the 2 sleeves.
I'll admit that I had had sneaky suspicion this might happen just because of how elastic I found the yarn felt. But I am most upset by this. What a waste of knitting time.
I am off to knit hats for Innocent and Age Concern. I have yet to mess one of those up.
Sunday was WWKIP Day. That's Worldwide Knit in Public Day to those of us who aren't great at the whole acronym thing. I knit in public most days on the bus and have had more than my fair share of conversations about how random people on the bus remember their grandmother/wife/sister knitting socks when they were younger etc...
For the last few years, Innocent Drinks and Rowan have got together to get people to knit little hats for the Innocent Smoothie bottles.
For those of you who don't live in the UK, Innocent Drinks make delicious fruit smoothies and greatly contribute to allowing me to get my government-recommended 5 portions of fruit and vegetables a day. Without Innocent Drinks, I'd be around 1 or 2. Possibly lower.
So, for each Innocent Smoothie bottle sold with a hat, Innocent Drinks will donate 50p to Age Concern (a great charity that takes cares of old people). You can read about how this all came about and the great work that they did last year here. (They receieved over 220,000 hats and raised over Ł110,000 (which is roughly $220,000).
So, I think it would be great to knit some hats for these Innocent bottles and raise some money for charity. Especially as the hats are teeny (we're talking casting on 28 stitches in DK weight yarn and knitting about 16 rows with a few decreases). I've received a 'kit' from Rowan which includes some 10% discount vouchers as well as some pattern leaflets with some ideas as to the hats that could be knitted. So, how about it? Wanna join in and knit a few hats?
Just to give you that little bit of encouragement:
- For every hat that I am sent I'll put a name in a draw so if you send me 4 hats, I'll put your name in the draw 4 times etc. I'll then get someone to draw 3 names out of the hat. And those 3 persons will get a present from me.
- The first 30 people to tell me that they are going to send me two or more hats (leave a comment or email me at the address below) will get a 10% discount voucher to spend on Rowan or Jaeger yarn. I am doing this trusting that if you say you will knit two or more hats, you actually will. These vouchers need to be used by the 30th of July so I don't want to wait until I have collected all the hats – after all, you are going to need time to work out what to buy. These vouchers are only valid in the UK sadly so if you live outside of the UK, and because I want you to play too, let me know and I'll put your name in a special draw for "People outside of the UK" so that you have a chance of getting something nice too.
- The instructions on how to knit these hats are here. It's worth looking at these just to make sure that the hats that you knit actually fit the bottles. I also have 30 or so leaflets with other patterns on them so if you'd like one and you are willing to pledge to knit at least two hats, let me know and I'll pop it in the post for you.
- You can see some of the hats that were knit last year here.
- I don't have a deadline for this yet but I think some time around the end of August might work well.
You can email me with questions or anything else at ameliajjones AT yahoo DOT co DOT uk (If you can't work the email address out from that, leave me a comment) if you would like a pattern, if you want my address or if you have any questions.
Let's see if we can make a bit of a difference with a bit of our spare time.
Updated to add: Diane pointed out that the vouchers are only good until the end of June but I am trying to see if I can get some vouchers with a later expiry date! Thanks for letting me know Diane!
Just watching TV and I came across this ad for Shreddies, a breakfast cereal.
Clearly there are already some people a bit upset about the way it portrays knitting and the people who knit. Personally I am a huge fan of Shreddies (they were a treat when I was a kid) so I love the idea that my cereals were knitted for me.
Well if just the title of this post hasn't been enough to make you run away screaming, I guess you just might want to read 7 random facts about me. I was tagged by the lovely Amy over at Stash Knit Repeat. Oh and have you noticed that in some places it's 8 random facts? I'll just be glad that I've only been asked for 7!
The rules: List seven random facts about you in your blog, then tag seven other people, making sure to let them know. So here goes!
1. I used to live in Poland. When I was out of uni, I went to teach English in Poland and quite a year it was. It involved large amounts of Żubrówka and sok jabłkowy (bison grass vodka and apple juice) as well as care parcels with Pesto and parmesan from my parents in Boston for me and my vegetarian flat mate.
2. I hate taking the tube. I can and do when necessary but am a huge fan of the London bus system. This could be because it's geneally easier to get a seat and knit on the bus than it is on the tube but it's also because I love to watch London go by. And I really miss the old fashioned double decker buses. The new ones are nowhere near as much fun.
3. I have a thing about orange Smarties (we're talking English Smarties here, not the American Smarties which are, from what I can tell, completely different). It makes the husband laugh but I will always eat all the other coloured smarties before I even think of touching an orange one. I think they taste better. He thinks I am mad.
4. My second language was Swiss German. I've forgotten most it now but when I was about 7 my family moved to Baar, near Zug in the German speaking area of Switzerland. I remember that it amused me greatly that the word for Daddy was "Vatti", pretty much pronounced "Fatty".
5. My middle name is Jane. My grandfather used to wind me up as a child calling me 'Amelia Jane who lived down the lane' and reading the Enid Blyton series of Amelia Jane books to me. She's a very naughty doll who constantly gets up to mischief in the nursery and I used to love the one book where Amelia Jane does something good and saves the nursery after the goblins climb in through the window.
6. My husband is, quite literally, my knight in shining armour. Just before we started dating, I lived in Paris. As I was moving into my new house, I had my handbag ripped off me on the Metro and lost my passport, credit cards, cash, the lot. My parents were away and in desperation I called "the-not-even-boyfriend-at-the-time" as I really didn't know what else to do. He jumped on the next Eurostar with a wad of cash and I was able to pay the deposit on my flat and move in. Needless to say we got together soon afterwards.
7. I hate Rowan Calmer. There will be more about that in a post to follow soon. But I really do not get on with Rowan Calmer at all.
PS: Like so many others, I am not tagging anyone as there doesn't really seem to be anyone left to tag. I think that I am the last of the last to respond to this meme.
If you've been reading my blog recently, you'd be forgiven for thinking that there has not been an awful lot of knitting going on here. But in fact there has. It's just that a fair amount of it has been stocking stitch and I figure that you've all seen stocking stitch before.
But, along with the stocking stitch, there has been some real knitting going on. You see, my best friend Jacqui is getting married in August and seeing how:
1. She's the best friend a girl could ask for
2. She made me this
I reckoned that she deserved a lace shawl for her wedding. Oh and I did ask her if she wanted one first! So we met for tea and poured over a couple of lace shawl books, we debated stoles versus triangular shawls and different kinds of yarn and drape and finally we agreed on the following combination:
It's the Myrtle Leaf shawl from Victorian Lace Today. Which you will all either already own or be in the midst of working out how to get a copy. Or you should be. But I digress. The yarn is Jaggerspun Zephyr in the colour Plum which Jacqui chose and I was lucky enough to find 3 balls of it in Stash. Mind you, I should only need 2 balls but I don't trust anyone when it comes to yarn amounts, especially not when knitting something like this.
I have to do 40 repeats and I have, so far, done 16. So I am doing quite well. The repeat is oddly addictive and I find myself always wanting to do 'just one more row'. It's my first 'real' lace project, i.e. where you work the lace pattern on right side and wrong side rows. I thought that I would find it harder than the other way but in fact, I prefer the fact that if you make a mistake you realise it on the next row rather than 2 rows later. A lot less tinking is required.
Oddly, I am finding it to be quite good knitting on the bus. At home I get distracted by whatever I am watching on TV or by conversation with the husband and so I forget to do my YOs. I don't know what it is about me and lace, but as far back as when I did the Alphabet blanket, it's always the YOs that I manage to miss out. So bus knitting it is, whilst I do my stocking stitch at home in front of the TV.
* PS: I'd like to profusely thank the wonderful Jacqueline for making me believe that I could knit something from Victorian Lace Today when I was convinced it was way too advanced for me and for greatly contributing to the shawl vs. stole debate. Now I just hope she'll be there for me when I get to the point where I have to knit on the edging....