this afternoon whilst in N London I had time to kill before an appointment, and wandered into The London Bead Company. I wasn’t expecting much, but it was one of those shop that seem like Alladin’s cave; they keep unfolding more and more things the further you go in. It’s a combination of bead shop (at the front) and super good haberdasher in the back with miles and miles of threads! The only thread I’ve ever used to embroider with was the Anchor tapestry wool and DMC cotton. But here were silks from Kaalund (I thought they only made yarn!), The Thread Gatherer’s Sheep Silk (my fave), Cotton Sampler Thread from The Gentle Art*, and Watercolours by Caron. I couldn’t resist….

They also have lots of books about knitting, embroidery, quilting, beading (including some Japanese ones) as well as yarn, needles (knitting and sewing) and  loads of other useful things – I definitely recommmend a visit!

*I love that they have grey-brown colour thread called LA Haze

is it to know someone who makes furniture? How lucky is it that he has time to make me one?
Very!…
I can’t wait…
Oh yes, and he’ll have his own brand new website soon too!

The long awaited ‘deviant view of cinema’ has arrived. V’s new monthly film magazine, Electric Sheep, is launched and a cinema club is planned… Have a go at the Film Roulette – you might win!

Other animals: If you remember the felt snails I made last year, you might be interested to know I’ve done a tutorial on how to make them for the Plush You! book coming out this November. There’ll be a bonus pattern online for a mollusc-y morsel to feed your friend later this year..

After some humming and haawing I’ve picked a yarn! I’m going with the YT Aran (in Maze) as I think it will do justice to the structured pattern of the Swing Jacket. It was also made affordable thanks to ebay, or it would be a seriously pricey garment!

The runner up was (and I surprised myself, normally not a fan of man-made yarns) the Sirdar Country Style. It’s very soft, showed up the pattern the most clearly, didn’t feel at all acrylicky and boy – so cheap!! I just think it would knit up too floppy for this project which is a shame.

Anyhow, going clockwise from the top is:
(green) RYC Cotton Jeans, (turquoise) Rowan Yorkshire Tweed Aran, (dark grey) Cygnet Wool Rich Aran, (turquoise) Sirdar Country Style, (pink) Rowan Scottish Tweed DK.

Yarny stats as follows:

Suggested yarn:
Quietitude (50% Wool, 50% Acrylic)
13 balls @ about £2.40 = £31 + shipping @ about £4.40 = £35

Needles: 4mm,
Stitches: 22,
Rows 34

Substitutes:
RYC Cotton Jeans (100% Cotton)

17 balls @ £3.75 = £64
Needles: 3.5mm,
Stitches: 22, Rows: 32

Scottish Tweed DK (100% Wool)

12 balls £5.25 = £63

Needles: 3.5mm
Stitches: 22
Rows: 36

Cygnet Wool Rich Aran (75% Wool, 25% Polamide)
9 balls @ £3.20 = £29

Needles: 3.5mm, Stitches: 22, Rows: 36

Yorkshire Tweed Aran (100% Wool)
8 balls @ £3.60 = £29

Needles: 3.5mm,
Stitches: 22,
Rows: 32

Sirdar Country Style (45% Acrylic, 40% Nylon, 15% Wool )

4 balls @ £3.75 = £15

Needles: 2.75mm
Stitches: 22
Rows: 36

So.. You might have seen I picked up a few balls of beautiful, colourful yarns when we were over in NY… oh how they got me with their seductive stripes, their collusion of colours…

Now to knit with them…

I had been determined to knit socks and had dutifully done a class sock from the very helpful Sensational Knitted Socks, so now – with a overflowing choice of pretty yarns to play with – to find a pattern…

I looked through the SNS book for a toe up pattern as I was a bit scared about running out of yarn. I found one, and very useful tutes online about provisional cast on and picot edging, so thought I’d start to swatch…

Oh dear…

It started off well – the picot edging worked and the colours were coming out v pretty… so I moved onto the suggested 5 stitch patterns in the SNS book for the toe up socks; Yarnover Cable; Beaded Rib, Laburnum… aie… these + variegated yarn = vomit socks!
I did a quick search online and saw that this was quite common problem… beautiful yarn in the skein snagged you, but it was a cruel taskmaster.. what pattern to choose to show off the colours (but not bore you to tears with endless st s?).

I did a search for more 5 stitch patterns but it was the same problem.. In the end I found a few ideas (of course, now I look for the links, I can’t find them..) and plumped for a slip stitch spiral pattern. So just a fleck of colour and texture every so often to a: break up the stocking stitch and b: (fingers crossed) break up any pooling…

Wish me luck!

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Pattern: Toe up pattern from SNS but using a slip stitch spiral for the instep / leg
Yarn: Claudia Handpainted Yarns (2 x 180 yds @ $12 ea.) – Red Wagon, lot 009
Needles: suggested -  3mm, actual -  2.5mm

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ps. I might suddenly find that I end up loving this yarn a whole lot better – what seemed like a kind of ’safe’ choice in the shop, suddenly seems like a great opportunity to use whichever stitch I fancy and not have to worry about it!

Just saw that Softies Central linked to me for the french knots on my snails They are running a softie competition, so I put in the snails and one of the creatures to see how they fare… good luck felty friends!