Knitting in Sydney

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community, Knitters Guild, knitting, Ravelry, Sydney

Today was a wonderful knitterly day.

First of all, I knitted and had lunch with some of the North Sydney Knitters. There were four of us and we had lunch and knitted outdoors and spent a lovely hour together (lunch break for most people so time is precious).

Later on, I went along to the group that meets in York Street every Thursday. I have to admit to feeling a bit nervous beforehand. I’d met a couple of the North Sydney Knitters on my short visit in August but this group was totally new. I’d enquired about their meeting on Ravelry (the website for knitters and crocheters and other wool crafters. If you don’t now about it, you should!) so I knew I’d find some friendly crafters but I was slightly taken aback to discover I’d been checked out in the meantime. I suppose it’s a bit like mothers eyeing up other mothers at the school gates in an attempt to assess the suitability of their offspring being playmates.

Having said that, I had a wonderful time. I was made to feel most welcome and everyone took pains to fill me in on current events. I was encouraged to join the next Knitters Guild monthly meeting, which takes place this Saturday morning. I was told that the Inner City group (yes, there are several groups in Sydney and the surrounding area) is quite eclectic, hip and cool.

Now I just have to think about what I take along for show and tell!

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Socktober 2014

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community, knitting, October, Ravelry, socks, Socktober, stripes

Did I spend a lot of October knitting socks?

I started late this year as I had a handful of Flings to finish first but then I just knitted socks. 

Did I reach the end of October with more than one pair knit?

Yes! I finished both of these pairs and sent them to their new home before the end of the month.

Did I enjoy thinking of October as a month-long celebration of socks?

Due to deadlines this year, I was more focussed on finishing the socks in good time than on the actual sock-knitting experience. However, I really enjoyed making Sublimation. The changing row numbers of each stripe were very addictive and I would love to make a pair for me with the colours reversed on the second sock.

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Socktober – it’s here again!

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community, crafters, knitting, October, Ravelry, socks, Socktober

In the world of all things knitterly, Socktober is basically a month-long celebration of socks. People knit more of them, offer special sales on sock yarn and sock patterns and there’s even a group on Ravelry for fans. If you live in the northern hemisphere, it certainly doesn’t seem like a bad idea to devote October to sock-knitting.

Here’s how the stripes progress on the Sublimation Socks. You can probably guess how they’ll finish…

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Knitting in the vineyards

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AIWCC, Cologne, community, knitting, socks, Stitch 'n' Bitch, vineyard, wine

Today was a terrific Tuesday!

I went on an outing with some lovely ladies from the AIWCC. We took a train from Cologne to Dernau in the Ahr valley. This is a wine region and so we strolled along part of the Rotweinwanderweg, the Red Wine Trail, as far as Mayschoss. (There are some lovely pictures here and here but the website is just in German). We enjoyed a lunch of soups and salads with a glass of local wine here……and then took a train from Mayschoss back to Cologne. The route we walked is not strenuous, and not really very long but it does make for a nice day out.

This year (yes, we have a lovely Walk & Talk Leader who organises this annually) the foliage was still very green and there were fat bunches of grapes hanging on many of the vines. The terraces are steep and we wondered how they actually harvest the grapes – can they use machines or must they harvest by hand? Fortunately, this year, there were some men working there (with small shears the size of paper scissors!) so we asked about the steepness.

• No, they don’t wear special shoes, just ones with good tread.
• It’s like mountaineering – it takes practice but they start young.
• Yes, it can get a bit ‘exciting’ on the steep parts but even an eighty-year-old can work on the flat sections (and I suspect that in some families they do).

The man kind enough to answer our questions explained that the previous day’s rainy weather wasn’t good for the grapes at this stage as they’d started to rot and red wines need the skins of the grapes to give them the colour. He then gave us a couple of small bunches to taste. Yum!

So what does all this have to do with knitting? Well, a couple of the women are in our Stitch ‘n’ Bitch group and I did knit on a sock for a bit each way!

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Monday, Monday, so good to me

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AIWCC, Cologne, community, Germany, knitting, Monday, patterns, projects, shawl, socks, Stitch 'n' Bitch, work

I don’t have a Nine-to-Five-Sitting-in-an-Office job so I don’t dread Mondays like some people do. My Monday mornings are usually a mix of domestic chores, organising teaching notes or marking, and checking appointments for the week.

Today was one of those particularly nice Mondays when the American International Women’s Club of Cologne (AIWCC) gets together for Stitch ‘n’ Bitch!

We are a very varied group of crafters. Most of us knit, some of us crochet. Several do other kinds of needlework too, like counted cross-stitch embroidery, but these are less compatible with chatting! Although numbers drop during the summer months we usually expect between ten and fifteen people each time. There were a round ten of us today. We get together once a month – some might feel that’s not very often but it helps to make our get-togethers special.

Today’s Stitch ‘n’ Bitch was extra special for a number of reasons: a member who’d moved back to the US last December came along as she’s in town this week. It was great to catch up in person. I was also given some lovely knitterly birthday presents today (I’m a Valentine’s baby). Monday, Monday, so good to me!

My kind of KAL

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community, hand-knit, KAL, Knitalong, knitters, knitting, patterns, Ravelry, socks, Socks with Sarah, WIP

Last year I took part in the 2013 in 2013 Knitalong. This was a results-driven KAL to collectively knit 2013 pairs of socks in 2013. Every little bit helps and I felt quite pleased with my efforts (see this post). However, it was hard not to feel a little dispirited in the face of the super-fast knitters who were churning out knitting new socks by the day.

Full of good intentions to transform a couple of balls of stash into delicate lace shawls, as well as get started on the cardigan I was desperate to knit, I was going to leave off the sock-knitting for a while. Socks are ideal travel knitting but they were not going to be my main focus in 2014.

But suddenly there were sock knitters everywhere! KnittingSarah started a KAL and bloggers were posting pictures of their WIPs, all smitten by Socks with Sarah, a KAL for 2014. It’s dead simple. Knit socks. Every day. For a year. Well not literally whole socks every day, just parts of them! A few rounds, the heel, whatever. KnittingSarah has gone all out – there’s a Ravelry group with various threads for support and sharing and she has even started a series of video tutorials.

Like so many sock knitters before me, I’ve fallen in love with hand-knit socks: the more you wear them, the more you want to wear them. I no longer want to slum it in the shop-bought stuff. What better way could there be of slowly but surely filling my sock drawer? There’s more: this is a process-oriented knitalong so there are no prescribed patterns (although Sarah has suggestions), colours or pace; just a bit of sock every day. Now that does sound like my kind of KAL!

2013 in 2013

Tags

community, KAL, knitting, projects, Ravelers, Ravelry, socks

Pairs of socks to be knitted during the year. That was the goal set by the Sock Knitters group on Ravelry for a yearlong KAL. Collectively, of course. Naturally, sock-knitting Ravelers everywhere rose to the challenge and the goal was reached in late August! The sock knitting continued and the final count was 3045 pairs of socks. The most prolific knitter made 87 pairs! That’s a new pair every 4 days. And there was me feeling quite chuffed with myself for having knitted almost a pair a month!

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Socktober – finale

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community, crafters, friends, knitting, October, Ravelry, socks, Socktober, Socktoberfest

Did I spend a lot of October knitting socks?

Yes! But I also knit other things too.

Did I reach the end of October with more than one pair knit?

Yes, kind of! One pair finished and these other two started.

Did I enjoy thinking of October as a month-long celebration of socks?

Yes! Yes! Yes! 🙂

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Socktober – part II

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community, crafters, friends, knitting, October, Ravelry, socks, Socktober, Socktoberfest

Confession time: I’ve been simultaneously working on a couple of other projects (sorry, but they’re still secret) so the socks have been growing very slowly.

I was on the road for for the past ten days and that seemed to be the perfect sock-knitting opportunity. But I got distracted by all the lovely people I spent time with en route. Happily, I am making progress and here is a WIP odd sock. And I am still hopeful that by the end of the month I’ll be able to say “Socktober? Why, yes!”

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Socktober – part I

Tags

community, crafters, knitting, October, Ravelry, socks, Socktober, Socktoberfest

The idea of Socktober / Socktoberfest seems to have been around for a good few years now. Basically,  Socktoberfest is “a month-long celebration of socks” and there’s even a group on Ravelry for aficionados. If you live in the northern hemisphere it certainly doesn’t seem like a bad idea to devote October to sock-knitting.

So here goes…

Pinot Noir

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