stateside supplies

While there are plenty of amazing craft suppliers over here in the UK, I still have my favorites from back home. One of them is Fabric Shack. They have one of the best selections I've ever seen, and I always look forward to going to their store. In addition, they have a massive online selection. They had a sale a few weeks ago, and I just couldn't resist.

It was the first time I'd shipped from them to the UK. They had told me they can fit 9 yards of fabric into a $10 priority mail envelope. So I ordered 9 yards from the "Dreams" line, and despite the start of the postal strikes, it arrived within one week!

I'm really excited to come up with some quilt ideas for this fabric.

I also really enjoy using Lion Brand yarns, because they are a more economical product with good quality. So I was really excited when I got an email yesterday saying they would now ship worldwide. I went to their site, and put a kit in my cart just to see what shipping would run.

A set of needles, pattern, and 2 balls of yarn, costing 15.07 GBP, creates a shipping cost of 24.21 GBP!!!! While I appreciate the move they've made, it seems a bit ridiculous. I even tried overloading my cart, to see if buying more reduced shipping in some way. But double cost resulted in double shipping. I guess if I want Lion Brand, I'll have to bring it back in my suitcase next time I visit.

Knitting and Stitching Show

I attended the Knitting and Stitching show last sunday. It was easy to see why this show was voted number one by Let's Knit magazine. There were so many vendors and exhibits, I wish I had gone more than one day. But my wallet was probably well enough without it. I picked up some really fun supplies:

some Art yarn from Colinette in "Rio"


an adorable Clothkit skirt


cute fabric from buttoncompany


adorable owls from euro-japan links


an sheep embroidery kit from rowandean

I also took two classes. The first was a foundation piecing class, doing a landscape. I've foundation pieced before on a machine, but mainly for quilts. We learned some great techniques for making the work more textured as a decorative piece. It was taught by Sally Holman. It was so much fun, I finished it when I came home that evening.



I also took a class in goldwork, taught by the Royal School of Needlework. It is one of my dreams to one day earn an RSN certificate, so it was a real treat. The coursework was a bit ambitious for the 1 hour allotted for the class. But our teacher was not shy of giving us as much information and encouragement as possible. It took me about 6 hours of homework to finish, and is far from perfect. But I am quite proud of the result.

whimsical knits 2

I'm currently working my way through most of the patterns from Ysolda's Whimsical Little Knits 2. It's been really fun getting a new pattern every week. I started on the Veyla mitts yesterday.

They seem to be a nice change since finishing the Snapdragon tam. The tam was a lot of cables. I always love the look of the cables, but I hate the fiddly cable needle. I'm also really liking the way the Jawoll is going on the needles.


I'm still in search of yarn for my fog sweater, which is for my husband. I was looking for Cascade's Eco Wool. But it doesn't seem that Cascade is a yarn carried in the UK (it's Canadian). But while I was searching, I happened upon a fellow Ohioan's blog. She is unfortunately still waiting for her visa to get over to the UK, having only applied a few weeks after me. The waiting was sooo horrendous, and mine wasn't even so long, so I really hope she gets it soon.

modifying a pattern - turtle to round neck

I am about to start work on a sweater for my husband. We decided on a free pattern "The Fog" from tiennie knits. But this pattern has a turtle neck, and my husband wants a round neck.

The actual change from a turtle neck to a round neck is quite simple. First, move the neck shaping down 1-3 inches, depending on your design. (Note: any arm shaping should be kept in the original place). Once the pieces are put together, pick up stitches evenly around the neckline, and knit as you would for a turtle neck, binding off after 0.5 - 1 inch.

I started by sketching out the front and back of the original pattern. If there are not provided diagrams I typically do this with projects like sweaters. This allows me to get a handle on any shaping. Sometimes it's a rough, un-scaled version, but this one I scaled using graph paper. This allowed me to see exactly which measurements I could shorten or lengthen to suit my needs.



For this pattern, I am planning to begin the neck shaping about 2 inches earlier. This brings the edge away from the neck, since the turtle neck starts right next to it. Because the neckline is dropped, a few more stitches will have to be picked up on each side after it's put together. Then I will bind off the stitches after about 1 inch of pattern knitting.

knitting the magic loop

I recently picked up a sweater pattern that required use of 2 sizes of needles, each with 3 sets. It required double points, long circulars, and medium length circulars. I have a lot of needles already in my kit, but only had about 2 of the correct size and length. This particular pattern only required the different lengths do accomodate different sizes of circular knitting.

magic loop knitting

This is when I decided to investigate the magic loop method. I had heard of this method before, as a way to avoid using double points. Since I am comfortable using double points, I never investigated it before. I am currently using it to knit a hat. So far I have found that it works really well. The only thing I've had to be careful of is the tension between the two halves when switching over. If you don't pull them tight enough, you get the same gap that can occur between the first and last stitch when using double points. If you pull too tightly, it makes the work look like there is a seam on each side. However, for larger works, like sweaters, this shouldn't be a problem in places where there is normally a seam anyway, or in places where it will be hidden.

I still need to look into the sweater pattern further to make sure of the needles I will need. But this could be a great money saver for those not looking to splash out on loads of needles, especially if they are sizes you are not likely to use very often.