Good ol' Dorothy

I realise that the blog is a bit light these past few weeks. All's well here over in Nic-land. Just a bit swamped by work and other commitments for the next month or so.

To tide yiz over, here's some of my favourite Dorothy Parker.

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Four be the things I am wiser to know:
Idleness, sorrow, a friend, and a foe.

Four be the things I'd been better without:
Love, curiosity, freckles, and doubt.

Three be the things I shall never attain:
Envy, content, and sufficient champagne.

Three be the things I shall have till I die:
Laughter and hope and a sock in the eye.

Dorothy Parker


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Ashord Cowl in DB Rialto

Here's an Ashford Cowl in Debbie Bliss Rialto, knitted as a shop sample for The Yarn Room. This was a lovely yarn for this cowl.

Very very soft and smooshy.

It's slightly shorter than the pattern indicates as I omitted the plain rows between the pattern repeats since I worried that I would run out of yarn.

I have some more Rialto in the stash and it's only shorter than the original by 3 rows, so I think 1 skein of this yarn would do it in future with this modification. Christmas knitting anyone?

Love it.

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Introducing the Ashford Cowl

Announcing my new pattern, the Ashford Cowl.

This silky cowl will add warmth and a little drama to any walk the park. Make it silky as shown or try it in a woolly or tweedy yarn for winter warmth.

Knitted in the round (shown in Lang Silkdream), shaping is achieved by a change in needle size and short row shaping creates a neat scallop at the cast off edge.

Pattern available free on Ravelry and from The Yarn Room, Ashford, Co Wicklow. My thanks to all the test knitters and models.

I'm so delighted at the response the pattern has received on Ravelry. I also received a number of compliments on the layout of the pattern. I worked really hard at writing the pattern and presenting it clearly, so naturally this pleases me.

I'm not boasting honest. It's just a cowl. But since you're here, I thought you'd like to see it.

(OK, so this has got me over the disappointment in the previous post. Ce sera sera!).

I'm gutted

Absolutely gutted I tell you.

See this?

Pretty nice, eh?

That's not the gutted part.

I'm crushed because I've been thinking about a design for something very similar to this for weeks now. Weeks, I tell you. WEEKS!

My idea was more along the lines of something in a lighter Manos silk yarn, or maybe the wool blend weight...but seriously I'm really disappointed. I was waiting to get some other things off my list.

Thing is, if I pursued my idea now I'd really feel like I was copying the Riverbanks pattern in some way, or at the very least that it was no longer an original idea.

Bummer.

Still, I'd like to make mine anyway and see how it compares.

As I've said before, in similar circumstances. She who hesitates is lost!

All kudos to the designer of course. It's lovely.

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Crochet Classes

Now that I'm starting to dabble in crochet, I'm all signed up for a couple of classes with Irene from Yarn Classes, one of the creative team behind the Pick Up Your Needles workshops that have served the Yarnie Women of Wicklow (and beyond) so well.

Click here for a class schedule. Come along and get hooked!

Next Friday 18th Sept, we'll be in the Yarn Room in Ashford, Co Wicklow having a go at making this lovely hat, just one of Irene's original designs.



Can't help feeling that I'm in on the ground floor of a crochet revolution!

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Class Report

Well, I realise that I kinda left you hangin' after the last post, but things have been crazy busy since the weekend - AND I felt it would take a while to do real justice to the Parent & Child Class last Saturday.

Given that I have a very busy Life Job with home and family AND a Paying Job with work and deadlines and colleagues etc AND given the struggles with commuting, shopping and housework, it turns out that I can only say that:

It went great.

I really enjoyed the class. There was a very broad range of ages and abilities, but I'm pleased to say that the young beginners left with a good grasp of knit, purl, cast on and cast off, and the slightly older beginners added stocking stitch, moss stitch, rib and cables to that list. The returning adult knitters remembered all about it and got all inspired to encourage their young ones and to embark on projects for themselves.

Altogether a happy and productive morning.

Which is not to say that I'm not delighted to have only half that number booked into the class this Saturday. Be nice to have a slightly easier day.

I may be a knittin' fool but I'm no fool*.


* well I am actually, but that's for another day!

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Parent and Child class at The Yarn Room

Oh I'm so excited. This morning I have my first Parent and Child class at The Yarn Room. I'll be there every Saturday morning in Sept and for 2 Saturdays in October.

We have 4 children, 2 Mums and a Granny booked in for today. They'll be a mixture of complete beginners, learned-10-years-ago-at-school and returning knitters, so it'll be an interesting morning.

With any luck, they'll go home with a little more than the basic skills and inspired to dive into their first project (or first project for years). It's so good to be a part of sewing that seed for knitting (yes AND crochet Irene).

I've got my knit samples, my class notes, my quiver of needles (well, in fact Stephanie will have needles in the shop, but my quiver* makes me feel 'armed and ready for action') and my enthusiasm.

Think that'll do it?

So this morning I'm excited (and a little bit nervous).

Wish me luck!


*This is a massive needle roll that my Mum made me containing several generations of needles. It's very impressive when it's rolled out. People gasp. Really. And when it's rolled up it's really like a quiver. It's quite impressive, I'll get pictures.
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Beauty

There be none of Beauty's daughters With a magic like thee;



But wait...look, there's another one.






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