My partner, Adele,  has received her parcel today (after a little confusion with postcodes, DHL and a small detour to collect…) so I can now post some finished pictures of some more secret knitting to which I’ve alluded and posted some hints over the past couple of weeks - the Hufflepuff Felted Bag -

Ta da!

I am really pleased with the way this turned out, it was knit with some Latvian wool purchased on eBay which felted beautifully. I only put it through the washing machine once, on a 60% wash, so the fabric remained fairly soft although the stitch definition was pretty well gone. I wanted it to be a “squashy” bag not a stiff case…and it came out perfectly.

I added some little touches - a magnetic catch with the fixings neatly covered up on the flap with this wonderful Hufflepuff sew on patch

It was accompanied on it’s journey with lots of goodies picked with Adele in mind and, from her email of thanks, I think I nailed her pretty well! They were mainly picked to be black and yellow to keep the Hufflepuff theme going . I have to admit I really wanted to keep this parcel…

Adele is prefect of Hufflepuff so I have to give her congratulations on her the performance of her House so far in the Quidditch - well done Hufflepuffs.

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Tags: hsks3hufflepuff hogwarts bag felted

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month a worldwide campaign started in 1993 by Evelyn Lauder to

• increase awareness of breast cancer
• raise funds for research into the disease
• support people affected by the disease

Readers of my blog will know that I’ve been raising money for Breakthrough Breast Cancer for some time but this month is more about raising awareness than raising money. So my blog is going pink for the month (this is a temporary pink theme at the moment whilst my lovely hubby designs me a proper Pink Ribbon theme - I’ll make this available to anyone who wants it as soon as it’s here)

In the UK over 44,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer every year, that’s more than 100 every day, and around 300 men are diagnosed each year. Worldwide more than a million women are diagnosed with breast cancer every year. This means that around 1 in 10 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer, just think about that for a moment….out of every 10 women you know 1 will be diagnosed with breast cancer at some time in her life. Next time you’re at your stitch ‘n’ bitch group just look around and think about that.

In the UK more than 12,000 women and 100 men will die from the disease every year. This means, however, that many more will have successful treatment, around 8 in 10 survive beyond 5 years of being diagnosed. One of the most important factors in successful treatment is early detection.

For me the most important message of Breast Cancer Awareness Month is for every woman out there to become “breast aware”

Most of us know that finding a lump is a possible sign of breast cancer but there are many other early symptoms which we are not aware of. Thes include changes in

• size or shape of the breast
• skin texture
• appearance or direction of a nipple

Also, discharge, rash or a lump in breast or armpit.

All of us women should become familiar with our bodies and, in particular, our breasts so that we are aware of any changes in them - give your breasts some “TLC”. That is “Touch, Look, Check”

• Touch your breasts. Feel for anything unusual
• Look for changes. Be aware of their shape and texture
• Check anything unusual with your doctor. Chat with your friends if you are worried

We don’t have to follow a fancy routine, just look and feel wherever feels comfortable for you - in the shower or bath, as you get dressed in front of your bedroom mirror, lying in bed before you get up in the morning.

To find out how much you know, Breakthrough have a Breast Cancer Awareness Quiz you can take

If you want to get involved in Breast Cancer Awareness Month then there are lots of ways you can do so, many cancer charities are running fundraising and awareness campaigns with organised events, special items on sale with high street shops, and ideas for fundraising. Perhaps your knitting group could do something - everyone knits something pink and raffles them off? Have a sponsored knit-in?

Check out some of these links

UK-

Breakthrough Breast Cancer -

• hold a Pink Party
• shop Pink for Breakthrough with M&S, Evans, Avon, House of Fraser and many others having special pink products.
• hold a Great Pink Schools Spectacular

Cancer Research UK -

• Think Pink and help fundraise
• Join one of their Walk Together walks
• Shop for pink ribbon items from Cancer Research, Peacocks, and USA Pro

Breast Cancer Care -

• Get “In the Pink” to help raise money
• Buy some of their great items in their online shop

In the USA check out the National Breast Cancer Awareness Month site. For information on events near you.

I’ll add some more links to Breast Cancer sites in the blogroll so if you know of a good one let me know!

The most important thing is to make sure that we and our friends become breast aware - pass on the TLC message to every woman you know - NOW!

I can finally reveal some of the Secret Knitting I’ve been doing over the past few months as one of the parcels I sent off has arrived at it’s destination.

In a few earlier posts I’ve mentioned that I was taking part in a Prayer Shawl Swap and my partner was Karen who has just received her shawl. This swap was a wonderful experience, not just a knitting challenge but a real opportunity to find quiet time to knit and meditate on something for a partner. Sending “good vibes” across the world to help another knitter with a problem.. I feel as though each stitch was somehow imbibed with love and I hope the shawl will provide comfort and warmth in the coming winter months. The idea of Prayer Shawls is explained a little more here.

I started the shawl in Cornwall at my in-laws, sitting in the swing seat looking out over the sea -

I spent quite a lot of time knitting in the “orchard” ie the end of our garden where the apple tree grows and I’ve planted a plum, a cherry and another apple all very small at the moment. I like sitting up at that end as it’s away from the house and temptations to switch on the tv or do chores…

and this is the finished shawl, I love it and hope that Karen does as well. I may have to knit myself one of these… Pattern is Tri-aran-angle by Lizzi Jennings and can be found at Knitty.com

Today I’ve been working on the new sock for the Vintage Socks KAL I moderate, we’re knitting the Child’s French Sock during October & November. I’ve picked some Yarn Yard sock yarn in “Pink Ribbon” for this sock. It seemed particularly appropriate yarn as it is sold in aid of Breast Cancer charities and October is Breast Cancer Awareness month.

So far I’ve knit the cuff and 5 and a half repeats of the leg, the pattern calls for 11 repeats but I don’t know that I shall do that many. I don’t like the legs of my socks to be very long and it’s already 5″.

Another autumn activity stemming from the fruit around me is jam making. I’ve tried this with varying success over the years but decided to try again this year when I discovered a heavily laden quince bush in the hedge between our garden and our neighbours.

This bush is down the side of our extension and the reason I’ve never noticed it before is because this small space has always been overgrown. Since the gardeners came and cleared I’ve turned it into a storage space for my plant pots, the chicken food and other garden stuff.

I noticed a few weeks ago that there was a quince bush covered in fruit against our fence…so I went “scrumping” (I think you can apply that to fruit other than apples but quince are related to apples anyway). I don’t feel that guilty as most of the fruit was on my side and in any case the house has been empty for about 2 months and so the fruit would just have fallen and rotted.

Quince are strange fruit, they are hard and waxy and when raw totally inedible. When cooked the flesh turns a reddish pink colour and the fragrance is almost perfumed. They also produce natural pectin and so can easily be turned into jam and Quince jelly.

I decided to make jam from a recipe found here.

Step 1. Gather 1kg of quince

Step 2. Place in saucepan with 1.5 litres of water and 3/4 cup of sugar and bring to boil. Boil for 2 hours until the fruit has turned pink.

Step 3. Lift the fruit out of the pan, remove cores/pips, chop to pulp and return to pan adding 1 cup of sugar for each cup of pulp. Boil for another 30 minutes until the jam is “set”.

Step 4. Bottle up ready to eat!

My most successful jam-making ever, it smells gorgeous and the colour and texture is beautiful! I hope whoever moves in next door (a) keeps the quince bush and (b) wont mind me picking the fruit next year!

One of the best things about autumn, and one of the reasons this is my favourite season, is all the fruit that suddenly appears, the last of the lingering warmth but the hint of cold telling us winter is just around the corner….one of my favourite poems is To Autumn by Keats:

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells.

In our garden the trees are definitely bent with apples and so we turn some of these into cider like this.

You start with some of these -

You chop, “bash” and press them

..as you can see this is a family affair - my brother is chopping, J is bashing (or pulping) and I’m pressing. Cider making is a very sociable affair, it is a celebration of low-tech, labour intensive processes that have been around, unchanged for hundreds of years. The thought that the end product will be so delicious is always a motivation.

Making cider always makes me feel it’s autumn - and moving towards Christmas. The weather had been wet and miserable but, as you can see from the photos, as soon as we went out into the garden to start the cider making the sun came out. My cider making book “Real Cidermaking” by Michael Pooley & John Lomax states “choose one of those lovely crisp sunny days in October….you will be blessed with fine weather anyway because cidermaking is a virtuous thing”

The pressed juice is decanted straight from the press into demi-johns which are placed in a warm place (our kitchen) and a loose plug of cotton wool placed in the neck.

No yeast is added as there is sufficient yeast present on the skins of the fruit to start the fermentation process. After a day or so the juice begins to ferment rapidly - hence the need for the loose cotton plug - any bits of apple that made it through the press are usually pushed out of the neck along with a brown “scum”. After 2 or 3 days the fermentation slows and then an airlock can be added.

The cider should ferment quite quickly for around 2-4 weeks at which point it will slow and we have to “rack-off” (transfer into a clean demi-john) to continue fermenting a little longer. At this point we can add sugar if we want the cider to be a little stronger. The specific gravity of our juice was 1.050 which would convert to around 6% alcohol by volume if all the sugar turns to alcohol. After another 1-2 weeks the fermentation will be virtually ceased and the cider should have cleared to a hazy golden colour (as opposed to the murky brown it is at the moment).

We then rack off again adding sugar if we want either sparkling cider or medium sweet cider. It’s then bottled, for sparkling cider it will continue to condition in the bottle. It’s then stored somewhere cold for 4-8 weeks which means it’s ready just in time for Christmas!

…to have so many people out there who are so generous. I’ve had lots of people wishing me well with the adoption and this week I received 2 swap parcels, so here’s what I got.

Firstly I got my parcel in the Sock it to Me swap, Laura turned out to be my spoiler and she really did spoil me -

She sent me a bag made from Recycled Plastic Bottles and a bar of Fair Trade Chocolate - both of which meet with my green principles. A set of clover bamboo dpns and a skein of beautiful Knit Picks Gossamer “Sweet Peas” a lovely little notebook, 2 sachets of Eucalan (never had this before!), a little tin of Burts Bees cuticle cream and a little packet of gorgeous wooden beads in blues & turquoises which comes with a cord and the finndings to make a necklace.

Laura must have been lurking around on my blog because the beads match perfectly with my favourite dress which I was wearing at my bbq!

Finally, and best of all, the socks! Here they are in their little wrapper

and here they are on my feet, which they fit perfectly

The pattern is Badcaul by Anna Bell and they were knit with Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Merino which is so soft it’s not true!

Thanks so much Laura.

The second parcel arrived today and was from a Swap-bot swap “Quick Stuff Swap” to send each of two partners something from their profile. Here’s my package -

Nicole sent me some really cute cookie cutters and stencils for decorating cookies/cupcakes with a Halloween theme - my friend Tracey is coming to visit with her two girls just before Christmas so I foresee a baking session!

On the knitting front I managed to complete another of my many and various UFO’s..this was an old one that had been completely knit and just needed sewing up. I spent most of yesterday doing that and got it from UFO to FO!

This is the “Alpaca Bolero” from Baby Style by Debbie Bliss, yarn is some BabySoft 4ply I bought sometime ago on eBay. I already knit another bolero as a baby present and still have about 3 full 100g balls left.

I’ve also been working on this

this was the “secret knitting” alluded to in a previous post which is unfortunately no longer secret. It’s a Gryffindor Scarf for J from Charmed Knits. Normally J doesn’t notice anything going on around him, I organised a surprise party for his 30th birthday right in front of him and he didn’t suspect a thing. I had conversations about it with him in the room. So I’d been knitting this and hiding it when he came in the room, usually not exactly “hiding” so much as putting it on the sofa next to me! Except a couple of days ago he finally notice it…oh well - no longer a surprise.

It’s taking for ever to knit as it’s very boring 1×1 rib with just the changes of colour every 30 rows for the trapped bars. It’s Merino Wool though so very soft and is knitting up really thick and I think it will be a lovely warm scarf for J to wear on his commute over the winter.

It finally feels like autumn around here this week, today it was damp and misty as I drove to work and I’ve been turning to “autumn things” …I’ll post about them later!

Many of you will have Nancy Bush’s wonderful book “Knitting Vintage Socks” I’m sure. When I first began knitting socks this was the first pattern book I bought and it’s been invaluable. As well as the wonderful patterns there is a large section at the start of the book in which she gives instructions for several different heel and toe styles, enabling you to alter the patterns or create your own.

Shortly after getting the book I discovered a knitalong on yahoo groups for the patterns in the book and joined up to motivate myself to try some of the patterns I might not otherwise do. Litle way down the line and the former moderator bowed out and I took over. The group is going strong and the poll for our next sock to knit during October & November had 53 people voting. The majority vote was for the Child’s French Sock so that’s what we’re now knitting for the next two months.

Several people in the group have recently suggested to me that it would be lovely to organise a swap for the group. I cogitated on this idea for a while, sounded out the group, gathered some ideas and today I’ve launched my very first swap as a host !

The Knitting Vintage Socks Swap blog is up and running and waiting for swappers to sign up.

The basic idea is we each knit a pair of socks from the aforementioned book and send them to our swap partner. At the moment I’m proposing a secret swap with each swapper having a partner they are sending to and a different partner sending to them..but we’ll see how it goes and how many people sign up.

It’s quite scary launching these things, it’s a bit like hosting a party. You send out the invites and buy in all the drink and then panic in case nobody turns up and your left with yourself and a pile of chips and dips feeling lonely.

My hubby J just recently launched a blog-idea-challeng-thing (not sure how to describe it), it’s called BlogFriday (go check it out). Each week a word is suggested on the site and everyone has until the following Friday to put a post on their own blog relating to that word and then link to it on BlogFriday. When he launched it he went through the “nobody will come” angst but, as with all these things, the word spreads and it starts feeding itself. It’s been interesting seeing the different interpretations from just one suggested word.

it’s a good challenge to get yourself posting on your own blog and quite a good creative tool - take a random word and create something.

Anyway, if any of you fancy signing up for a swap and giving and receiving a pair of hand-made socks then get yourselves over to the Knitting Vintage Socks Swap. Sign-ups will be open until the end of October, matches sent out by 7th November (I hope) and then swap parcels to be sent by 7th Jan 2008 so there will be plenty of knitting time even with Christmas!

Oh, and if anyone has any comments/suggestions about the swap then please let me know.

I’ve just signed up for Sock Wars, and the 1st rule of Sock Wars is….you must talk about Sock Wars so here goes.

The
original and bloodiest extreme knitting tournament has returned! If you
are brave enough sign up to do battle and you will be emailed a top
secret file on 13th October. This dossier contains the details of your
target and a pattern with which to assasinate them.

To
kill your target you must knit them the pair of socks in the pattern
and mail it to them.Once your target receives your parcel they are dead
and must post their death on the “fallen comrades” section of the
sockwars site.

They
must also immediately send you details of their intended target (who
becomes your next person to assassinate) along with their unfinished
knitting (which becomes your new weapon).

All the while this is going on, someone has been assigned you as their target…

Prepare to live in fear… Kill or be killed!

THE RULES OF SOCK WARS

1. The first rule of Sock Wars is: You must talk about Sock Wars.
2. The second rule of Sock Wars is: You MUST talk about Sock Wars. (no really, for this to be a success we need as many combatants as possible)
3. Two socks to a fight.
4. One fight at a time.
5. No shirts, no shoes, just socks
6. Fights will go on as long as they have to.

THE NITTY GRITTY Sign ups close by 23:59 on 1st October 2007. To sign up as a participant go here now!

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Tags: sockwars knitting

Just a very, very quick post to say thanks to everyone for their kind wishes - all those good vibes must have worked because the adoption panel have approved us!

Slightly scary to think we may soon find ourselves with an instant family…..:)

Off to open a bottle of wine with J and celebrate now…catch you later

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Tags: adoption

I was just looking around on Ravelry at groups and spotted one for WOT (for those not in “the know”, WOT refers to the Wheel of Time series of books by Robert Jordan), I was intrigued so went to have a look and found a post telling me that Robert Jordan had died….I was shocked and went racing off to Google to check.

It’s true, James O Rigney who wrote under the pen name Robert Jordan passed away on 16th September in Charleston SC. I felt so sad….I had never met this man, never spoken to him or corresponded with him but his passing has touched me because his writing touched me.

The Wheel of Time is a series of fantasy books with a huge worldwide following (just go Google it and you’ll see)…now I know fantasy books do seem to attract big cult followings but these books justified it. The world which Robert Jordan created and the people who inhabited it were incredibly real (even if they were full of magic and Ogiers and the One Power) and the story that unfolded was one which held the reader and swept them along.

I was given the first WOT book, The Eye of the World, as a Christmas present in 1993 by my then boyfriend. We spent that Christmas with his parents and family at their home in Essex, it was the first time I’d spent any time with his family and I spent almost the entire time reading the book finishing it by the end of Boxing Day. I went out the week after Christmas and bought the next two books in the series - I think at that time there were 5 published and I read them all over the first few months in 2004. I then had to wait for the 6th book to come out and my boyfriend bought that for me the next Christmas.

The next books came out at 2 or 3 year intervals and the wait each time was interminable. The final book, Knife of Dreams, was published at the end of 2005 and my husband bought it for me for Christmas. As it had been nearly 2 years since the previous book and 12 years since I’d read the first I decided to re-read the entire series before reading book 11 which I did over several months in 2006.

Whilst talking with a colleague at work about books I mentioned them to him, he’s a David Eddings fan (as am I) but had never heard of WOT so I lent him Book 1. He was hooked, went out and bought the whole series and read them in a few weeks. We’ve talked about them a lot and speculated on how the 12th, and final, book would end.

Robert Jordan has been ill for a long time and was diagnosed with a rare blood disease, amyloidosis, in 2006. WIth that knowledge he had commited most of the final book to word processor or audio tape and disclosed the story to his wife and his cousin. They plan to publish the book as per his wishes.

From a knitters viewpoint the books provide some inspiration, the most powerful society in the WOT world are the Aes Sedai - an order of women who weild the “One Power”. When a woman is made a full member of the Aes Sedai she is said to “attain the shawl” these shawls are worn on formal occasions and have a coloured fringe indicating which of the 7 sects, or Ajahs, she belongs to. I think each shawl is different - whether the Aes Sedai make or buy them is not clear…or whether they are woven, knit, crocheted….I always imagined a light, silky shawl with a very long fringe….I may have to design something…..

Also, women who have not “attained the shawl” for some reason are cast out and forbidden from weilding the One Power, others run away and go into hiding. These women form a secret society known as the Kin the leading council of the Kin is called the Knitting Circle.

So I think in tribute to Robert Jordan I’m off to design my very first knitting pattern - a lace shawl for an Aes Sedai…..may have to re-read again for ideas.

With regards to his family and friends, he will be missed by us all even those, like me, who never met him.

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Tags: WOT, wheel of time, robert jordan,