Friday 6 April 2007

Lovely fibre and freaky feet

Oh my! Got to my parents' in Sussex yesterday to find a box waiting for me... my roving from Copperpot Woolies had arrived. I didn't even know I'd had it sent to them, so that was a big fluffy surprise! The roving is beautiful. I spent a lot of time fondling it last night while Scott and my dad were watching the football. I can't wait to get spinning, though part of me thinks I should resist a while until my spinning improves. I don't want to waste it by spinning a lumpy mess.

At the moment I a trying to find something suitable to ply my second skein of single with, but feel utterly clueless. In the meantime I'm spinning some natural fibre, much coarser than the stuff I started with thus a very new experience.

The second Waffle Sock is all but finished. I just need to do the toe and weave in ends. I had to ration the yarn for the first sock, thus the toe is a little "abrupt", but they fit me okay which is a good sign since my mum and me both have the same freaky big feet.

Mum's Waffle Socks


I' really enjoyed knitting this pattern. I didn't have too much trouble with it, which encourages me to perhaps have a go at something a bit more challenging. I'd like to revisit Hedera I think, since it utterly confused me when I attempted it before. If only I hadn't left all my DPNs behind!

3 comments:

WoolyWorm said...

Hi, Laura! Thanks for the tip about Queen's Lane Coffeeshop. We had cream tea (coffee, actually) there today. Once I got there I remembered going there years ago when I was in a summer program at Oxford -- long before you were born.

I can't believe the poor selection of knitting books in Blackwells. You must speak to them about it... harshly.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to seek out some yarn shops. Wish me luck.

Laura said...

Hi Penny :) Hope you had some luck with your yarn shopping expedition and managed to find a few nice things. I know what you mean about Blackwell... it's a lamentable selection, isn't it? I went to look myself a few weeks ago and ended up back in Borders craft section!

That's awesome about Queen's Lane Coffeeshop... made me smile when you said you remembered having been there before. I think one other reasons I like going there is the fact that it's been thee so SO long. Long before either of us were born!

Oh, all this makes me very sad when I think that'll I'll be leaving Oxford very soon :(

WoolyWorm said...

Hi again, Laura. We're home again now.

Thanks for your help. We had a lovely time.

I eventually did find a yarn shop in Witney, but I can't really recommend it. It's so ironic that there in the Cotswolds, a land made rich with wool -- and you can't throw a brick without hitting a sheep -- there really isn't much in the way of wool shops. I asked the ladies at the store about roving and they looked at me like I had two heads. "Oh, you'd have to go to Wales for something like that," they said. They only had three lines of yarn and most of it was acrylic.

THEN, to make matters worse, my newly purchased Pony circular knitting needles were confiscated at the airport. I was so angry.

But I don't want to complain. It wasn't a successful wool holiday, but we had a wonderful time overall. I'll write more about it in my blog tomorrow.

Oh, one more thing! The Scottish play was hysterical. It was opening night and they hadn't had a dress rehearsal and everything went wrong. Before the play started, the director came out and explained that they'd had some bad luck -- which is in keeping with tradition for the Scottish play -- and hadn't been able to do the dress rehearsal and that we should all just bear with them because they weren't sure what would happen. People kept walking in through the wrong doors and then backing out and coming in again. At one point, a messenger is supposed to be coming to MacDuff to tell him that his family is dead, so MacDuff said something like "But, look, who is coming?" and then no one came. He waited and still no one came. Finally, the actor said, "He's coming from a long way off." We waited a few more minutes and then he muttered, "... from Scotland." The whole audience burst out laughing. Finally the stage manager came out and stopped the play for a few minutes because they had "misplaced one of the actors." It wasn't what I expected of the Royal Shakespeare Company, but it was memorable.

Yesterday we climbed up the hill to the Cadbury hill fort -- a postulated site for Camelot. It was lovely and we'll never forget it.

Penny