Beaker Button Blog

We went to Unravel this Sunday and had such a good time I thought I'd write about it this week.  I save all year for Unravel.  I put £1 in my money box every time I take over £100 in the shop.  That way I have stash growing funds without having to feel guilty.  I went with Kay and met up with Mum, Debbie, Mandy and her friend.  Kay and I spent the day together, meeting up with the others for lunch and a well earned hot chocolate in the afternoon.  Our first sweep revealed some gorgeous yarns, beautiful fibres and an intriguing rug hooking kit.  Both Kay and I decided not to spend on the first run round. Sunday is a nice day to go as it's not so busy.  I had time to talk to the very nice people who supply Beaker Button with Soak (the perfect stuff for washing your hand knits, delicates, holiday clothes, Dorset button jewellery, blocking.... the list is endless), and I now have a bottle of Flatter to try. Flatter is for spray blocking (if you have...

I had my third person to teach spinning to today.  Usually my Mum teaches spinning, as she has 40 years experience.  But I'm learning to teach spinning on very special people, who don't mind being practiced on or being passed on to Mum when I feel inadequate.  So today I taught Silka to spin, starting with carding and ending up with setting her own skein to take home.  She was brilliant.  Very focused, and with her listening ears on.  She picked it up really quickly, which is nice for both of us really.  Below are a few photos from the day. spindle spinning bit of a draw on the wheel getting the twist first yarn on the wheel finished skein close up 

This is just a quickie, with photos from  the Fair Isle top I'm making.  I've completed the second pattern repeat, and I've worked out how to fix mistakes without unpicking.  You simply drop the stitch in the wrong colour and pick it up from the float at the back in the right colour.  I'm quite proud of myself for figuring that out (although it probably says it in my book if I'd looked).  Still, it' getting there.  I have about 30 more lines to do and then I'm onto the bit that will be cut later.  That's a whole new skill to learn.  I've been weaving in the tails as I go as well, so I don't have too much of a job later.  The book says that some Fair Isle jumpers are left with the tails loose and they felt in as they're worn and washed, but I'm finding it helps to close the hole caused by changing the colour.  I'm pretty sure I'm doing something wrong though, because the tension is wobbly at the side where the round begins. ...

As you can probably guess from the title of this post, I finished the rib on the Fair Isle top.  I'm very pleased with the way it's turning out.  I've got used to having the wool over two fingers, and making sure one always goes over the top of the other.  It looks very neat if I do say so myself. pretty rib first line of pattern I knitted my first row of pattern, while watching Con Air (I'd forgotten how dreadful a film it was).  I got to the end of the row and had four too many stitches, which puzzled me for a moment.  I shrugged philosophically and knitted them together so I had the right amount of stitches, then I carried on with my second row.  And then half way round the row I noticed my first mistake, inevitably.  I'm blaming the film for the lack of concentration.  Normally I would just drop the stitches down and pick them back up and fix the mistake.  Of course I didn't know how to do that in Fair Isle so I duti...

I spent a very enjoyable day on Monday in the shop with some dear friends, being taught how to make Torchon lace by another dear friend.  I started the day in complete bewilderment, with no idea what was expected of me or what I was going to do.  I've never made anything like lace before.  Basically you use bobbins wound with thread or in our case yarn, a large straw, foam or polystyrene covered cushion and lots of pins.  You weave the bobbins in set patterns to create stitches, the pins hold the threads in place where necessary.  Sue, our teacher, gave us dotted paper which is the pattern you work to.  I took to it like a duck to water.  For some reason the whole process felt completely logical once I'd got started.  Mind you, I couldn't explain it to anyone else, but give me time.  I've added a couple of photos below to show you what I did.  Beaker Button will hopefully be adding this class to our workshop program very shortly, a...