Monday and Tuesday were really windy..it was so windy that there were white caps on the waves on the canal...yes, definitely the canal, not a river! The whole boat moved and I could hear all sorts of stuff being hurled around in the ever changing wind direction including a boat moored 3 boats behind us that has been completely wrapped in tarpaulin - tarpaulin is noisy. So that was the first 2 nights. Then Wednesday I was so excited about being able to sleep, that I went to sleep late and woke early...why are bodies like that?
Consequently I didn't really feel up to knitting and when I did try on Thursday, I was so tired I kept dropping stitches, then when I got to the end of a row I found a couple of stitches that had dropped down about 4 rows. What's worse than dropping stitches when you are tired? Having to carefully loop them with the crochet hook and work them back up to the row!
Friday was very exciting - I went to Center Parcs at Sherwood forest for my annual meet up with the girls for a weekend of talking, eating, drinking and spa sessions, it's fantastic! Even better was that I could meet up with 2 of my friends who are also knitters and I could have a chat and a question of them.
Here are some useful tips and info I got from them:
- Don't start a scarf or similar with knit stitch as it will curl; rib or stocking stitch is better
- When starting a new ball of wool, take the wool from the inside of the ball rather than the outside. This way if the ball of wool drops on the floor it won't unravel as it keeps rolling away from you!
- Always try to change onto a new ball of wool at the end of a row rather than the middle. That way you can neatly sew it into the seams or sides
- It appears I knit the continental method which is where you have the knitting in your left hand and the wool in your right. As I went to primary school in the Shetland Islands, and this is where I first learnt to knit, this would apparently make sense as this is how they would traditionally knit. The English method, I am lead to believe, is to have the knitting and the wool in your left hand. This was apparently so that it showed off the English girls dainty little hand better in historical times. I think I might look that up!
Talking of looking things up - have you heard about the Radio 4 knitting challenge? Here is a link to their blog / challenge http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/radio4/entries/2a8040ac-cddf-4c6b-8ab3-a59630c55bcd I've also posted it on my Google+ page
Here are some pics, in the now frankly appalling colour of brown wool. They show the poor error of dropped stitches, the old way I held the wool - between thumb and forefinger of my right hand, the new way of learning to hold the wool, which makes me less tense in the wrists and seems a little easier, and a pink footed goose who wanted to join us girls at Centre Parcs!
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