Public Traveller, Astronomy and Knitting

Longing

krispian@krispian.co.uk (Krispian Lowe aka Knitting Kris) — Sat, 22 Oct 2016 23:19:00 +0100

Something I saw this week.

The terrier was just looking for its owner.

Episode 10: Double Digits

krispian@krispian.co.uk (Krispian Lowe aka Knitting Kris) — Thu, 28 Apr 2016 21:08:00 +0100

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Episode 10 (Rework)

The head up

Welcome to Knitting Kris. Thank you for downloading and most importantly listening to my podcast. This week I will be explaining my long absence, a book review and what I am knitting. Not necessarily in that order, but lets live life on the edge.

The long gap

Hello and welcome to my 10th episode. It has been a while since I issued a podcast. That you have my apologies if you missed me and if you did not, then well, no apology needed.

Longs gaps in things do tend to break up the flow of things, but I was really struggling for content. I was going to have a rant episode about service and how things are not served on actual plates (see hipster food). I thought about and discussed my reservations about it with people around me. I decided not to podcast a rant. It would be rather alienating and to be honest there are enough people out there who bitch and complain.

Recently I have been sorting out some minor medical issues, which has taken up some time. Everything is mostly fine, just some physio to ease some back pain and rest.

What I am knitting.

I am currently on a yarn diet. Even loveknitting.com have noticed and they sent me a questionnaire why I am not buying yarn. The answer was: I have no more spare to stop anymore yarn and I have a load of projects that need knitting. I am surprised that I have quite a selection of yarn available to hand. I worked out that I have over a year of constant knitting before I have reached 50 per cent.

After finishing the crochet blanket of many months work and hoping it would turn out ok, it is pleasant to return to knitting.

I am nearly one-third through Stephen West’s pattern Day Break. It is a semi-circular shawl. The patten is divided into three sections with two colours: a solid colour section in the main colour, a striped section with both colours and a border with the secondary colour. It comes in three sizes small, medium and large.

I chose this pattern since it is a masculine shawl and seems to offer enough complexity and interest for me.

The main colour I am using is one ball of Schoppel-Wolle Crazy Zauberball which is a blue green affair. The colour progresses as you knit. It is a sock yarn, so does have a small amount of nylon, but the rest is wool. The colour is 2133 Holly Blue.

The secondary colour is Ístex Loðband Einband / Icelandic Laceweight which is an Icelandic wool by Lopi. This was purchased by a colleague when they visited Iceland (a different colleague than before). It is a grey heather colour, number 9102, it is from the first shear, so it should be softer than the normal Lopi.

It is fun to knit and I am looking forward to the colour striping. The solid colour section is good with lovely colour changes in Schoppel-Wolle.

I am using Addi Lace needles. I did start with my Addi click needles, but the yarn kept catching on the cable-needle join. Also it was rather annoying to pick up stitches since the needles tigers were not sharp enough.

The designer lives in the Netherlands and does some very colourful work, which is very interesting.

I will link the pattern in the show notes.

Book review

The book I am reviewing is “Men who Knit and the Dogs Who Love them” by Annie Modest and Drew Emborsky and it is published by Lark books in 2007.

This book contains 30 patterns for a Man and their Dog.

The premise is that there is a pattern for the man and then a corresponding pattern for the dog, in the majority of cases.

The colours for some of the items are rather bold and eye catching. Though if your colour palate is more muted, you can always change the yarn colours.

My top three patterns are:

East Toe-up socks and Super-wash Mutt-luks.

The human pattern: I like toe up socks, since you can knit until the ball of yarn is finished. The colours in the book are a variegated brown and yellow. Not really my cup of tea, but I like the simple construction. The heel is short rows and the leg is ribbed. So pretty standard.

Dog Pattern: They are little slippers for the dog. They look very quick and easy to make. Though, I think putting them on the dog would be rather difficult. It consists of a cuff and then a foot and then a toe. So these are top down. At the end you put some textured paint on the sole of the sock.

Of course the colours match for the socks and the dog slippers.

Pet Box Sofa

This is a dog bed pattern. You build the sides and the bottom and they are double knitted. The pieces are then felted and then stuffed. It looks very cool and a small dog bed that has a personal touch.

Faupi Lopi Cardigan

The cardigan pattern which is yoked cardigan. The main body of the cardigan is white and has a twisted cable motif. The yoke is knitted in with lots of colours and there are colour charts in the book. However, you can always take the shape of the charts and make your won pattern. It looks like a fun pattern to make.

The book

The book is available from Amazon. I have put a link in the show notes. It is over 9 years old, so the book may be difficult to get hold of in your local book shop.

The end

Thank you for listening to this podcast and I hope you enjoyed it. Please comments at blog.krispian.co.uk, tweet me at @jediknitter Tweet and on the Facebook page of Knitting Kris.

Episode 9: No New Yarn!

krispian@krispian.co.uk (Krispian Lowe aka Knitting Kris) — Sat, 13 Feb 2016 16:14:00 GMT

Episode 9

Welcome to the world of no new yarn!

Hello and Welcome to episode 9. I hope that you enjoyed last weeks episode.
I received a comment from Jackie last week.

Congratulations on the addition of your pups to your family!
It’s been years since I’ve made jam or jelly. I used to love making it for my family. I most often made peach, blackberry, strawberry and blueberry raspberry.

Thank you for the comment. Jackie has a blog called Jackie Stitches, which is about Jackie’s life, quilting, knitting and all good crafty things.

Jackie's Blog is located at http://jackiecastson.blogspot.co.uk/

I have made a New Years resolution. Yes New Years resolutions should be a part of continuous improvement; however, it is coupled with new year sales. The resolution is that I am not going to buy anymore wool. It should be caveated that if I run out of wool, I can buy more.
I have a fairly large stash and a few projects on the go and in the queue. So it is more of a focus to finish the projects I bought yarn for.
So what am I making at the moment:

a lace shawl
Crochet blanket

The crochet blanket is my no brainier project. However, my dogs love lying on my lap when I am crocheting. It is on purpose, they know they are doing it. I got up to fetch a drink and I came back and the little blighters dragged it off the back off the sofa and lay on it.
The second is a simple lace pattern, but each row takes a long time, so I have to sit and focus.
On the queue I have

an Icelandic jumper
Icelandic or Shetland scarf
My knitting pattern projects there about a twenty in my head at the moment.
Normal jumper
And a Stephen west shawl
Teddy bear
Rosalind illusion scarf

I can see over a years worth of work there.
Is it just me or do I collect so much yarn that I cannot knit all of it within a year or stick to a single project.
It might sadden you that this lack of yarn buying might affect loop knitting shop, love knitting, laughing hens, random knitting shops through towns I visit on other business.
I have managed to get past several 70 per cent sales, so I am doing well.

What’s up with the needles

As I said I am working on a crochet blanket. It is getting bigger and I am adding a few centimetres to it each day. It is about 2 thirds of a double bed. Each ball of yarn is now either completing a single or partial ring. This is either going to be a stunning effect or look rubbish. I have attached a picture to the show notes, so let me know what you think.

One dog looking annoyed that I have got the crochet out again and the other is a lump underneath the blanket.

The second is been going a lot slower. The lace shawl. I have tried to get this finished, but I never have enough time to do a couple of rows. Each row takes 30 minutes. There is a picture on the show notes.

Stitching and bitching

I have started to go to my semi local stitch and bitch. Though it is in St. Albans, so it should be a knit and natter. We meet in a pub in an evening. Have a glass of something usual non alcoholic, since I drive and a plate of food.
It is a positive knitting experience and it is social. The group is rather young and most people are either early thirties or younger. I am the only man. Last week I was told off by the staff that I was sitting in a knitting reserved space. I said I was a knitter. They looked shocked. The knitting group do not really care that I am a man.
The group is good for looking at other knitting books, seeing what other people are doing.
There seems to be categories of knitters:

ones who have started and working on projects and just need moral support;
The no knitters, usually the admin of the group who are busy sorting out the next event, greeting new people and sorting out group correspondence
The mega crafter the one who knits, quilts, sews, darns, crochets, nail binding. They usual have something they are amazing us with
The mega knitters. The ones that do incredible projects which involve such skill and patience, that no mere mortal possesses. They whip up a cabled entralec fair isle jumper in five dimensions between you arriving and ordering your first drink.
The normal knitters. The ones who bring simple projects to knit and knitter because they know they will go wrong after a few wines and a plate full of chips (thrice cooked, see St. Albans).

They are all nice and kind and supportive. So if you are thinking of looking for a knit and natter or stitch and bitch, just google those words and your location and you should find something.

A quick little pattern

Bunny nuggets are One of my favourite patterns and something quick and easy to make.
They are small squares or balls with bunny like ears. You can easily make one of these within an hour. Though, you do need to knit like the wind.
They are knitted in the round. The main body is a few rows. You cast off the top, stuff the bunny from the bottom, sew up the bottom. The ears are an I-cord and sewn to the body. You can embroider eyes and a nose. A bunny nugget. Do need for bunnies or a deep fat fryer.
The pattern is free and is by danger crafts. The link is in the show notes.

Here is the link: http://www.ravelry.com/download/26464/free

end

That is it for this week. Let me know what you thought.

Episode 8: Hello.... Hello..... Hello....

krispian@krispian.co.uk (Krispian Lowe aka Knitting Kris) — Sun, 31 Jan 2016 18:15:00 GMT

Podcast Episode 8

Download this episode (right click and save)

Welcome to knitting Kris. My podcast about knitting, books and random thoughts that come into my head.

Introduction

Hello and welcome back from a long break. This fortnight I will be talking about my current knitting, my current favourite books and current hobby.

So why the long break? I hear you cry or sigh with relief. I have received some critical feedback about podcasting. I also conducted some time researching podcasting. One thing that has been suggested that I write a loose script. I will not go into too much detail, but I hope the end result will be a better experience for you.

A few more things have happened in my life which have been rather good and bad. These took a significant amount of time. One I would I like to talk about are two little four legged additions to our household. Two dogs. We have adopted two rescue dogs that very affectionate and very happy. Though I think they are training us rather us, them. It is great having some company in the house.

There is a draw back to them. They seem to hate me knitting. I was sitting cross legged on the ground knitting. My ball of expensive silk lace yarn was in between my legs.

A dog approaches and sits in front of me mesmerised by the ball of yarn. He then grabs the yarn and then thinks it is a game. I manage to get the ball of yarn back, plus some dog slobber, in exchange of a precious dog toy.

I sit back down and then the second dog lays over my lap, knitting, arms and yarn. I get the puppy dog look and he does not budge.

My dogs hate me knitting. Perhaps I will get some revenge and make them jumpers or something. If I survive putting them on.

My current knitting

I have knitting erratically and not as regularly as in the past. The recent completions are a striped baby jacket, which consist of black alpaca with Noro silk garden. The Noro colours cycled from red, yellow, green, people, grey and blue. This is for a colleague child that is due in the new year. The pattern is out of baby knits.

The pattern is knitted sideways. You start at the front edge of the cardigan, knit until the arm hole, cast off some stitches, knit the rest of the row, knit back up to the cast off section and cast on. Knit the back, then repeat the armhole section.

Make arms from the cuff upwards. Knit a collar. Sew.

The second project was a felted belt for another colleague that is leaving. It is simple to knit in a seed stitch and then felted. The yarn I use was one hundred per cent wool and made by Noro. The belt had a lovely variegated colours. The belt was well received and I got a thank you, which is the best response to someone giving their knitting as a present. The pattern was out of Knitting with Balls. Tehehe.

The pattern consists of knitting purl one knit one turning and purl one knit one; giving a seed stitch rather than ribbing. The pattern grows very quickly and you can get it done in a short amount of knitting time. The felting part is rather challenging. You can either felt by hand, using boiling hot water and agitating the belt until it felts, or using a washing machine. Either method works, though, with doing it by hand takes longer, but you can reduce the chance of over felting. I am sure that there are many tutorials on youtube about felting.

The third project I was knitting a mohawk hat. I reached a point when I could try it on. It was too bit. My gauge was out. The tension square I did was fine, but my gauge when knitting was slack. I tried to unravel the hat, but it decided to be difficult. I guess it did not want to die. It went straight into the compost bin and thrown in a queenie strop.

The pattern is rather intriguing. The part that sits on your head is knitted in one piece, but is done in three sections. The instructions are verbs and it requires accurate knitting. One of the tenants of accuracy is gauge. I do love this patter, but I will need some time to get over the first failure.

I have stated on a simple shawl pattern. It is of my own design. I have reached row three owing to dog interference. It is a simple Yarn Forward, SSK, Yarn forward, K2tog shawl.

One this simple shawl is made, I will then modify it for a future pattern I have in mind. My plan is to have a basic shape correct then modify it to reflect what I wish to see. i.e. the images in my head. I expect it will take weeks to complete.

Books

This month it will be a slight deviation from knitting books. I will be taking about an audio book. Do not worry I am not going to flog an audible subscription to you. I thoroughly recommend either the paper back or the audio version.

It is the Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch. A little bit of a name drop I went to the Gollancz Festival in London in the middle part of October, where I and a good friend met a few authors. One was Ben Aaronovitch. He seemed a very good person and shared a few stories about an old Doctor Who, a dwarf and a time bandit.

Back to the book: It is set in London and a new police constable investigates a strange series of murders with some supernatural elements. He comes across ghosts, spirits of London’s rivers — as per the title — and normal humans. It was one of these books I stayed awake listening to the small hours of the morning. Be warned it is start of a series.

Why did this book entrap me? Firstly it describes part of London that I know well: Covent Garden. It starts off with discovering this supernatural world and unraveling each thread by thread. Yes, you have to suspend your belief about certain things, but that is what Fantasy books are about.

The next point, makes the world a little bit more grey than black or white. Not all supernatural beings-slash-deities are evil or have to be destroyed and not all humans are good. Yes there are some beings that are not great for a human to meet. Yes there are some which are killed for being deadly to humans. Yes there are some humans that require a good kick in the rump. I personally, like this grey area. This means the story can progress and develop. Rather than, go here kill this vampire, leave, kill goblin, kill giant, rescue damsel in distress.

You can buy the book for any bookshop and online. There are a couple of links in the show notes for more precise review.

Be forewarned there are another five books to read as part of this series.

Dogs

I and my partner have adopted a couple of lovely dogs. These are rescue dogs from the dogs trust. They are a charity which takes in dogs and gives them new homes. They do not put a healthy dog down. If a dog cannot be given a new home, it is sent to Salisbury’s Sanctuary where it can live with other dogs. The dogs trust is not the main animal charity in the UK, but is well done. The main charity is the RSPCA and they do put healthy dogs down after a short amount of time.

The two we adopted were a pair originally and cannot be adopted separately. We planned to have to dogs. We met them and walked them and they seemed friendly. The dogs did not seem to dislike us, perhaps it is something to do with the amount of treats we gave them.

One of the dogs was more nervous and we had to visit the centre multiple times, which is understandable. After a week and 3 visits, a course and buying the entirety of a pet shop (just in case they need anything), we took them home.

They settled in well. Despite their description of “not being lap dogs” they sat on our laps straight away.

I cannot think of my life any different, after a few months of early morning walks, barking at random hours, being nudged for cuddles and treats and teaching them tricks.

Dogs are a responsibility, but they provide much joy. Despite there anti-knitting stance.

Other things

I have thought about the content of the podcast. I guess it is a boring subject to people. I have decided to just create a podcast about things I like and things I do.

I guess this podcast will find its place.

My favourite activity currently it’s jam making and flavouring spirits.

Jam making its something I tried about eight years ago. A work colleague gave me a lot of plums. I made rather awful burnt plum jam.

After a few years and we moved house. The garden has a apple tree and we are near a park that contains a lot of blackberries. I tried another foray into jam making. This time, with a Jam pan, thermometer, recipe, right sort of sugar and time. That was three years ago.

The jams I like are blackberry, apple and cinnamon, which is a nice christmas and warming jam. Blackberry, apple, blueberry, raspberry and blueberry that gives a might fruit punch. At first it is rather overpowering and too many flavours and then mellows. A non-jam eating friend likes that jam.

Also I make a mint jelly. This is not a jam or a jelly (jello for the americans). Mint jelly is a preserve that accompanies roasted lamb or some other meat. It can also be used to cover a roasted meat to give a lovely caramelised crust. The mint jelly consists of reducing down apples (skins and pips included), water and some mint. Straining the resulting mush into a liquor. Then add sugar and boil until it sets. This can take hours to do. The set picture is then poured into jars and chopped mint is added and stirred.

Episode 7: Visiting York and Buying Wool at the Ramshambles

krispian@krispian.co.uk (Krispian Lowe aka Knitting Kris) — Sun, 24 May 2015 16:54:00 +0100

Hello and welcome to episode 7. This is a more of a rushed episode since I have come back from holiday.

This week I am talking about my visit to York and a review of the wool I have bought. And most importantly, what I am going to do with it.

Remember if you want to contact me you can visiting my Facebook page knitting Kris, e-mail me at podcast ! a-t ! krispian.co.uk, leave comments at blog.krispian.co.uk or podcast.krispian.co.uk, tweet me @jediknitter. Yes I cannot believe that twitter handle has not been taken.

York Visit

Yes another one. Do not worry, I will not be taking anymore holidays until Christmas. We just wanted to get away before the school holidays started.

We went York in well erm… Yorkshire. Spent 4 and a bit days there.

We looked at the Jorvik centre - where you learn about Viking York about the people and culture. No horns on helmets!

There are lots of people to tell you about York in viking times and there was a person Nailbinding. This is a form of needle craft using one needle with an eye. It produces stitches identical to knitting, but one stitch at a time.

There is a small ride, which takes you around a recreation of a viking settlement. There are lots of smells and information. Very good and well put together.

The York Minster and its tower. TO be pedantic it is St Peters cathedral, but none calls it that. The tower view was fantastic.

Boat Ride on the Ouse. A nice 45 minute tour. Very laid back.

Clifford Tower, which is a Norman clover leaf fort. Only two in the world. Very small, but great views.

Betty Tea room. You have to go early (you can book for afternoon tea or if you are in a group). It is quaint English Tearoom. Excellent service, great tea and wonderful confectionary. We may have cleared them out of chocolate, caramel shortcake.

National Railway museum. Interesting for those who like trains and even for those who do not. I saw my favourite train. I am not a spotter. It is the Mallard. The fastest steam train in the world. It reached 126 miles an hour (to the nearest mile an hour).

The Mallard

There is the city of truro, which is the first train to go over 100 mph (unofficially, since they did not want to scare people).

A Japanese Bullet train, which is one of the very few outside of Japan. It is huge. Same gap between the railes, but the train overhangs and is taller than UK and European trains.

A massive Chinese train (built in the UK). It is absolutely huge.

There are royal trains etc.

North York Moors Railway. Which is one of the longest Hertitage railways in the UK. It goes from Pickering to Whitby. There are several stations on the way. One has been used for Harry Potter as Hogsmeade and for Heartbeat for the Nick Berry fans out there.

We visited the Abbey and St Mary’s church on the cliff above whitby. Had lunch and it was very interesting to see the view described in Dracula.

View from St. Mary's Church

There was no knitting shop in Whitby. The one that Ravelry pointed me to was not there. Though I did see a shop that sold a mug. I knit, so I do not kill people. I thought it was funny and my amazing partner thought it was very accurate.

We went to the York’s chocolate story. Essential a shop and museum about the chocolate past of York. So Terry’s and Rowntree’s chocolate factories (a couple other people as well). It is very interesting that Rowntree had very good benefits for its workers, such as free dentist, healthcare, holidays etc. At the tour you get to make a chocolate lollipop and eat some chocolates.

York Brewery, a small brewer, with a small tour and a few tastings. It was great to see a working brewery. The beer was also very good.

Walked the walls of York. The ones behind the minster are fantastic. Lots of gardens to see and a wonderful view of the minster.

We saw the shambles, which is a archetype ye olde English street. It has a collection of independent shops and most importantly a wool shop. I did buy some wool.

Not bad for 4 days. I think I have come back to work for a rest.

I recommend the hotel The groves www.thegroveshotelyork.co.uk. It has free parking and free breakfast if you book through their site. They are also the number two on trip advisor.

We stayed in a small double room. It was reasonable priced, very clean, all basics you need. The beds were comfy. The staff friendly. The breakfasts are good. A section of English Breakfast - veggie option available, Continental, cereals, smoked salmon etc. The serving staff remembered out preferences form day to day.

I like my bacon and sausages crispy.

For this holiday I packed my knitting and emergency knitting, just incase I run out of knitting.

Guess how much knitting I did? three rows. Three Rows on a scarf. I managed to squeeze it in when I was sitting on the Train on the North York Moors Railway. I am not unhappy that I did not have time for knitting. I always pack more than what I can do.

Perhaps I mistakenly thought that I would have a spare afternoon to knit. I guess I did not, since we packed in so much activity.

So Lots to do in York… Have a visit and enjoy.

The Wool.

I visited Ram Shambles one of the most famous knitting shops in York.

It is open

Monday - Friday
10am - 5.00pm

Saturday
9:30am - 5.30pm

Sunday and Bank Holidays
11.30am - 4.30pm

And is located at
46 Shambles, York,
North Yorkshire
YO1 7LX

Web address is www.ramshambles.co.uk and their twitter is @ramshambles

It is a small shop, but has a lot of stock. It has friendly staff and lots of wool to choose from.

I went there twice.

The first time was for supplies for the Mohawk Hat knitting hat and the second for the crochet blanket I am making.

Firstly, The Mohawk Hat

Last week I reviewed Dotiknitrix knitting book by Jennifer Stafford.

I add the Mohawk Hat to my knitting queue. Page 121 of the book. Please note that there are some errata in this pattern and the corrections are listed on the Revelry Pattern page.

It requires bulky wool. Lamb’s pride.

Unfortunately, Ram shambles did not have the bulky wool I needed. This is quite common in knitting shoes, that they do not stock bulk wool, except for Rowan.

Never mind. I am an adaptive knitter.

Instead of having a single colour, perhaps I could have two aran weight wool stranded together when knitting.

I thought about the Mixology sweater for Debbie Stollers’ Son of a Stitch and Bitch.

If I have a dark plain colour then a variegated wool, then that would add some variation and funk.

I chose the following:

Jupiter Moon Farm Herriot Heathers 100 per cent baby alpaca dark grey for the base hat colour.

Noro Silk Garden colour 47 (grey brown and black) for the contrasting base hat colour.

The punk hair is the Araucania luxury merino wool, white, blue and turquoise chunky wool. All of them are lovely and soft. It is going to be a warm hat!

Crochet Blanket

The next two skein I have bought are for my Crochet Blanket. This project is a giant crochet square. I am making this from bit of wool I buy from all over the UK and the world. So I buy the odd skein here and there.

There are currently about 9 balls/skeins that are in the queue.

The wool from York I bought for the blanket are Jupiter Moon. Moonshine Trios and Herriot Great. The first is a variegated wool with greens and blues and the second is a plain dark blue. Very chunky and soft. It is one of those you put to your face in a wool shop and drift into some heady land of comfort and softness.

Just me? OK……

The Trios is made from 40 per cent alapca, 40 per cent wool and 20 per cent silk. The Great is 100 per cent baby alpaca.

The blanket I am making is for the spare room to go on the double bed. I am expecting this to be an heirloom which I can pass down my sisters step family or my friends family.

The Blanket so far...

See I do have projects for the wool I buy… most of the time… sometimes… occasionally…

Knitting Events

This week I have looked at the UK Hand Knitting Association. and the events coming up over the next week:

Proper Woolly is a two day fibre event in Holsworthy, Devon on the 30-31st of May 2015 to bring together fibre crafters and producers in the South West – we aim to have exhibitors to cover every stage of fibre production, from sheep to jumper and everything in between. We’re looking to have livestock, demonstrations, workshops and an excellent variety of exhibitors to appeal to all types of fibre crafters.
http://www.properwoolly.co.uk

To find out more events from the UK Hand knitting association visit UKhandknitting.com for wealth of information.

If you have any events coming up, please let me know. It could be your local stitch and Bitch or Knit and Knatter. A local show. A workshop you are hosting or course you are teaching. Even just that your wool shop is having an event.

It can be anywhere in the world.

End

Thank you for listen to my podcast this week.

I look forward to any comments you have. So please e-mail me at podcast ! a-t ! krispian.co.uk
comments at blog.krispian.co.uk or on the show notes podcast.krispian.co.uk
Tweet me at @JediKnitter or on the face book page Knitting Kris.

So thank you. Remember that knitting is not a hobby, it is a life.

Episode 6: I have finished it and Knitting Book Review: Domiknitix

krispian@krispian.co.uk (Krispian Lowe aka Knitting Kris) — Sun, 17 May 2015 19:00:00 +0100

No Podcast this week

krispian@krispian.co.uk (Krispian Lowe aka Knitting Kris) — Sun, 10 May 2015 22:09:00 +0100

Hello all,

I have not been able to put together a podcast this week. I was on holiday in Cornwall and visited the
Bomin and Wenford Railway, Helston, Loe Bar, Porthleven-stein and Penzance.

Here are some pictures to get you through absence of podcast.

Bodmin Railway. An excellent Day out.

A works train

St Michael's mount to Penzance

The Scillonian on its way to the Isles of Scilly

St Michael's Mount

View towards Penzance

Little Rock, big rock

Fancy Filtered image

Porthleven with a Rick Stein Restaurant (not for local or poor people).

Episode 5: If

krispian@krispian.co.uk (Krispian Lowe aka Knitting Kris) — Sun, 3 May 2015 18:00:00 +0100

The queen of Purls website is: http://www.thequeenofpurls.com/

When in Scotland, it is rude not too. A lovely smokey Whysky

Crochet Dragon Eggs

Arc de Clyde

What I bought at the Queen of Purls

Nice arty shot with my camera

This week's poem is If--:

If you can keep your head when all about you
  Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
  But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
  Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
  And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
  If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
  And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
  Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
  And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
  And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
  And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
  To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
  Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
  Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
  If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
  With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
  And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son

Text has been taken from Wikipedia.

Episode 4: My Knitting

krispian@krispian.co.uk (Krispian Lowe aka Knitting Kris) — Sun, 26 Apr 2015 18:00:00 +0100

Here is the shameless plug for my "The shirt of one's back mat" pattern:

Here is the link to the pattern via Ravelry or recycled into yarn. Please give me comments about the pattern. If you do make it, please share your pictures.

The Gunister pouch:

The pattern is available from : Ravelry

Karen Firing a Cannon! Boom!

Karen is on the very far left, sensibly away from the cannon.

Events:

www.gwlana.co.uk - From a knitting retreat and course in Wales. Colour work and Yokes and goodies.
Want to visit Yorkshire and the Lake District go to www.craftlit.com.

krispian@krispian.co.uk (Krispian Lowe aka Knitting Kris) — Sun, 26 Apr 2015 11:03:00 +0100

A quick post.

I have changed the style of the blog to enable comments to be made easily. The previous layout hid the option of making comments with a small link.

Hopefully, I will be able to get more feedback on this blog and the podcast. I hope everyone has a lovely Sunday.

The podcast will be released later today.

Episode 3: Knitting with Balls

krispian@krispian.co.uk (Krispian Lowe aka Knitting Kris) — Sun, 19 Apr 2015 18:00:00 +0100

Book Review:

This fortnight's book review is about Knitting with Balls - A hands-on guide to knitting for the modern Man by Michael Del Vecchio.

Click here for the Ravelry Link to the Book.
Click here for the link to the Author on Ravelry, you know you can find patterns by him from this page.

Amazon.com link: To buy second hand.
Abebooks.co.uk: To buy second hand.

Tribal Jumper:

As you can see I made a couple of mistakes with this jumper. The motif is too high at the top of the jumper. I started it too late. The bottom of the jumper (see the grey line), is where I extended the jumper by a few inches. My Ravelry page for this pattern is here

A Dogtooth's pattern:

Image linked from here. Please visit Lion Brand Yarns

Events

The events announced in this podcast are:

www.gwlana.co.uk for a knitting retreat with courses.
www.craftlit.com for a Yorkshire and English Lakes tour.

Episode 2: Thought of the day and events

krispian@krispian.co.uk (Krispian Lowe aka Knitting Kris) — Sun, 12 Apr 2015 19:00:00 +0100

If you are interested by the poem have a look at the wikipedia page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozymandias

Smith's Poem from http://www.potw.org/archive/potw192.html:

In Egypt's sandy silence, all alone,
Stands a gigantic Leg, which far off throws
The only shadow that the Desert knows:—
"I am great OZYMANDIAS," saith the stone,
"The King of Kings; this mighty City shows
"The wonders of my hand."— The City's gone,—
Nought but the Leg remaining to disclose
The site of this forgotten Babylon.

We wonder,—and some Hunter may express
Wonder like ours, when thro' the wilderness
Where London stood, holding the Wolf in chace,
He meets some fragment huge, and stops to guess
What powerful but unrecorded race
Once dwelt in that annihilated place

Shelly's Poem from https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=MZY9AAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&hl=en&pg=GBS.PA100:

I met a traveller from an antique landWho said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stoneStand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,Tell that its sculptor well those passions readWhich yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:And on the pedestal these words appear:'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'Nothing beside remains. Round the decayOf that colossal wreck, boundless and bareThe lone and level sands stretch far away."

Events

The events announced in this podcast are:

www.gwlana.co.uk for a knitting retreat with courses.
www.craftlit.com for a Yorkshire and English Lakes tour.

Podcast Episode 1: Sven's Jumper, Son Stitch 'n Bitch Review, Thought of the Day and Gwlana

krispian@krispian.co.uk (Krispian Lowe aka Knitting Kris) — Sun, 5 Apr 2015 20:26:00 +0100

Well this is exciting! I have made my first podcast.

The podcast feed should be: http://feeds.feedburner.com/PublicTravellerAstronomyAndKnitting

I am having some issues and I I will try and get the podcast episode to appear on the feed.
Okay. I cannot spell the file name correctly. Lets try again.

Update: You can subscribe using the link above or putting into your podcast grabber of your choice, whilst iTunes is having some issues.

Right. I now have a second feed: http://knittingkris.podbean.com/feed/ this one will be going to iTunes, since my host does not have the right kind of special settings for iTunes.

There is some horrid interlinking feeds and files, so if things break let me know.

The podcast is now available on iTunes by clicking here
Right I have seem to figured out the issue. You can now listen to my pod cast from this player.

This is technically the show notes and contains links to things I talk about:

Sven Jumper Pictures:

Svens Jumper. I have just started the Yoke.

If you want to have a look at my previous progress on Ravelry click here.

Ravelry Link to Debbie Stoller's Son of a Stitch 'n Bitch.

Blatant link to Amazon.co.uk click here to buy the book.
Link to cast-on and the fabulous Gwlana.

I am sure I have missed out things, so I will keep updating this page.

Christmas Knitting and an Icelandic Affair

krispian@krispian.co.uk (Krispian Lowe aka Knitting Kris) — Sun, 21 Dec 2014 17:15:00 GMT

Selfish ... Moi?

This Christmas I am being selfish with respect to knitting for other people. I am not knitting any presents…. I let that sink in…. I am still knitting and I am making an Icelandic jumper for a work colleague, but not for Christmas.

I found knitting for Christmas was extremely stressful. People that received a knitted gift love it, but I found the 25th December deadline too stressful. The number of years of spending 2 am on the 25th December finishing a gift, was not relaxing.

This year I have been making presents for people, such as scarves, jumpers and baby hoodies; so I feel happy that I have given enough knitted gifts this year. Christmas is a stressful time of year. Spending time with family in a concentrated time, trying to sort out Christmas Shopping, making mince pies, attending Christmas Parties and visiting relatives before Christmas day. I do not be ratty on Christmas morning, since I had 3 hours sleep sewing together a cuddly toy or finishing a hat.

This has nothing to do with no one asking for a knitted item :-).

What am I knitting?

I am currently knitting an Icelandic Jumper. My Colleague Sven prior to going to Iceland, asked if I could knit a jumper for him. He was initially joking. I was not. Sven went to Iceland and bought enough wool for his jumper and a jumper for myself. Unfortunately, Sven did not buy or was not given a pattern. I found a wonderful site http://www.knittingpatterns.is/. This site you can design a custom Icelandic Jumper. You will need Silverlight and it may not work with Chrome.

I have designed the following jumper using knitting patterns.is. I have called it invaders of space. Feel free to look and use it, but you may want to design your own to your custom dimensions.

Click here to download the Invaders of Space PDF pattern.

Troubles?

I had to rip back the pattern since I was working to the wrong dimensions. Oops. When you create your own jumper, please, please, please create a new project. I was working to the default pattern, which I think is either a child or woman’s dimensions.

I am working with the Icelandic wool lettlopi and it is a lot coarser than most of the wools. It is not as thick as aran wool, but slightly thicker than double knit. I think it is a worsted size. It is knitting up quite quickly.

The issue is with my design, the Hazel Heather and Moor colours are dark and are very subtly different; therefore, I think the space invaders pattern will not be obvious. I will have to wait until it is finished to make a full judgement.

This is the first Icelandic jumper that I have made and I am enjoying it, despite the rip-back.

Please have a look at the http://www.knittingpatterns.is/ and see what creations you can make.

Photographs for Friday

krispian@krispian.co.uk (Krispian Lowe aka Knitting Kris) — Thu, 20 Nov 2014 18:57:00 GMT

BBC Radio 4 - Gardeners' Question Time, Postbag from Sparsholt

krispian@krispian.co.uk (Krispian Lowe aka Knitting Kris) — Fri, 14 Nov 2014 15:45:00 GMT

Before the fame rushes to my head, there is something I should tell you. I did something very middle class. My question is at the end of the programme 40 minutes 20 seconds.

I have asked a question on Gardeners' Question Time, which is a BBC radio 4 programme. I asked:

As an avid male knitter, I seem to be spending a small fortune on wool and other such yarns. I have seen and used yarns made of linen, bamboo and paper.

Can the panel suggest any plants that can easily or with a little efforts be used to make a ripping good yarn?

A. Nettles can be used. Sisal and Phormium could also be used to make rope. Cabbage Palms are also a possibility.

You can hear the full answer from the link below or you can download the mp3 from the podcast

BBC iPlayer: BBC Radio 4 - Gardeners' Question Time, Postbag from Sparsholt:

or

GQT podcast: http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/gqt

'via Blog this'

Photograph: A Split Tree

krispian@krispian.co.uk (Krispian Lowe aka Knitting Kris) — Fri, 14 Nov 2014 06:00:00 GMT

I saw this tree when out walking in the Chess Valley. It is an old tree that has split in half. It is somewhat striking.

Finished Object

krispian@krispian.co.uk (Krispian Lowe aka Knitting Kris) — Tue, 11 Nov 2014 18:00:00 GMT

The Finished article

A week ago I finished two knitting projects. They where a babies hoodie. called a Teddy Hoodie by Stylecraft. I completed a red and a brown hoodie. I do not have photos of the red hoodie, but it looks like the brown one, but red.

Before all the ends are weaved in and the buttons are sewn in.

I am very glad that these patterns are finished. I think three in a row was nearly my limit. Small knitted items are lovely, but they can be fiddly to sew together [See the post about my love of sewing].

Now is the Icelandic Jumper for Sven made out of Icelandic Wool bought from a shop in Iceland.

Stereotypes

krispian@krispian.co.uk (Krispian Lowe aka Knitting Kris) — Wed, 29 Oct 2014 18:13:00 GMT

I have been thinking about stereotypes today.

This is a rant, so those people who do not like rants, please skip this post.

My thoughts have been dwelling on this topic for a few days now. The final trigger is sitting in a Starbucks with a Macbook typing into a blog. Currently, there are several people typing into their shiny Macs in this Starbucks. There is is only one person using a non-mac in the entire place. It is expected that people in coffee shops (especially Starbucks) should be typing in their Macs.

Various things have been flitting around my head: overheard comments on the train, news articles or people general thoughts.

Men knitting. The encounter of the lady and going to my local knitting group filled made me feel different. The local knitting group are a fantastic group of people and the only comment was, 'oh, I thought someone nicked our space' then followed by 'oooh what are you knitting... that is lovely...' So it was a momentary short feeling of 'your a man knitting.' I felt welcome by the knitting group and I will go again.

This I am fine with this. In my experience humans find differences very interesting and want to ask questions. I am fine with this and actively encourage questions. Part of me has felt that I should produce business cards with top ten questions about knitting.

The thing that riles me is perceived gender roles. A man and a woman may encouraged to be more predisposed to a certain role owing to social convention rather than ability. I am have certain feelings about this. I prefer to be seen by a woman Doctor, since they take no nonsense from men. However, no person should be paid less or excluded from a job because of their gender. Also, they should not be derided for that role. This article from the Mail, states that Rachel Riley as the "letters and numbers girl." This makes me so annoyed. The Mail is a
very bad, poor, dreadful, terrible, frightful, atrocious, hopeless, inadequate, inferior, unsatisfactory, substandard, laughable, lamentable, execrable, crummy, pathetic, rotten, useless, woeful, lousy, appalling, abysmal, dire, poxy, God-awful, chronic, rubbish, a load of pants, vulgar and egregious little rag that is only suitable for lining a septic tank.

The most clever Astronomers and Astrophysicists I have met are women and also called Emma (I know three). Sciences seem to be male dominated and they are after post-doc level. I think that this is quite a disgrace.

I am not stating that you should have an 'x' per cent quota on the number of women, because 'positive' discrimination is still discrimination. I believe it should be easier for women and men, to come back to the sciences after a break, such as trying out the private sector (and finding it a horrid place), child rearing etc.

The aspect of having short 2 to 3 year post-doc placements at any place around the world can put a lot of strain on relationships. I know of two astrophysicist couples that have made it work and I have know a lot of couples that have split owing to long distances.
Are foreigners loud? I am sitting in the coffee shop, I can hear two conversations. One to the left is from a German family and the second is from the teenage couple to my right. They are the same distance apart. They seem the same loudness. i.e. the noise is the level seems the same.

I have picked up on the family to my left first. Why? They are speaking a different language and my brain is focusing on this difference. The couple to my right are louder, since I can make out words, I cannot hear the words from the family to my left (I know some German). Therefore, the people on the right are louder, since the family on the left are speaking at volume which is below level of intelligibility (i.e. they are too quiet to hear what the words are).

Personally, I think that certain policies by certain politicians use Europeans or immigrants as scape goats. Look they are different, things are happening, it must me their fault. This basic argument is fundamentally flawed. The recent election in Clacton in Essex (does not have diverse demographic), voted in UKIP. This vote is mostly for people who voted for the same MP (The MP defected from the conservatives to UKIP).

Immigration has been at a steady level for the last few years ranging from 100,000 to 200,000 per year (source: Office for National Statistics). The average for the last 10 years is 161,386, the last few years have been 241,192 (2010), 166,878 (2011), 129,749 (2012) and 154,689 (2013). The population of UK is about 64.1 million. If everyone you emigrated to the UK stayed, they would make up 1 per cent of the UK. This completely ignores people leaving and UK nationals leaving and the previous few years.

Immigration is not bad. It can be very useful and essential for a country. Basing a policy and your government and blaming a small population of your country (despite where they are born) in my opinion is wrong, shortsighted and fascistic.

This following picture is a good illustration of UKIP.

Rant over.

Same project different wool

krispian@krispian.co.uk (Krispian Lowe aka Knitting Kris) — Mon, 20 Oct 2014 21:59:00 +0100

I have found knitting a particular garment (or garments) can vary between loving it, exciting, interesting, hating and boredom.

It varies between project to project and my mood ... or so I thought. I now know it additionally varies with the amount of future sewing and the yarn used.

I have been knitting Stylecraft's Lullaby Hoodie (8912) [Ravelry Link]; unfortunately, the pattern is not available from the www.stylecraft-yarns.co.uk website.

I have been using the recommended yarn: Sand 1746 dk lullaby yarn. It is synthetic and fairly soft. I have knitted the birth to six months and twelve to twenty four months patterns. The pattern itself is fairly easy to follow and you knit the hoodie is major sections: two fronts, back, hood, border and ears. There is belt you can make (I have not).

The first few sections of the first hoodie was exciting. It is a new pattern and that in itself is exciting; however, the pattern started to grate after section number two. I am not a fan of separate sections and I was imagining the future amount of sewing and swearing. I finished the pattern and then had to sew it together. I started to sew the shoulders and when I completely and utterly mucked that up, I then crocheted all the sections together. Crocheting the seams together is something I have worked out by myself. It is more interesting that sewing, but is still a grind.

I converted the pattern to minimise the amount of sewing. I am not a fan of sewing and I tend to rush it.

I managed to get all the way through feeling fairly happy about it. The alternative purl and knit stitches were fine, I thought I was going to get seriously annoyed. I did not and I am fairly surprised. I got into the rhythm and time flew by and in a couple of weeks it was nearly competed (I have the buttons and the ears to sew on and I am working up the patience). Though, I did complete the sleeves in stockinette - whoops. The first hoodie, I did it by mistake. I realised by the middle of the second sleeve. Now knitting the second hoodie, I had to repeat the mistake, since both hoodies are going to the same mum.

Theoretical Me: No, no, the sleeves are meant to be like that - it is in the pattern. Yes I understand that the picture shows a different pattern, but the pattern says I should do it like this.

Actual me: I did the sleeves wrong, but they look fine. They are a little bit baggier and you can now easily tell if the hoodie is inside out.

12 to 24 months size no ears and ends to weave in.

I have knitted the same pattern, albeit different sizes, and found out the amount of future sewing is inversely proportional to the enjoyment of the pattern.

The x-axis is the amount of future sewing (arbitrary units) and the y-axis is the amount of enjoyment (squees). As the amount of future sewing increases the amount of enjoyment decreases. If sewing is zero the enjoyment is infinite. The unit of squee is equal to 1 kilopuppy.

Now, I am knitting a third version. This is a birth to sixth month old version. I am using Sublime baby cashmere merino silk dk as the yarn and I am converting the pattern even more to a seamless version (apart from the arms).

I am really enjoying this version. The yarn is super soft and it seems to be knitting very quickly. I think the natural yarn has more stretch and my knitting does not feel as tight - as with acrylic yarns. I have nothing against acrylic yarns, they are affordable and most importantly with babies and children - washable.

I do think that the third time of knitting this pattern is that I know what I am doing, using a different wool and reducing the amount of future sewing to a minimum.

The pattern for me started exciting, reached a trough of future sewing despair, picked up to enjoying and now I am really enjoying (akin to reading a good book).

I really like this pattern, since it is super cute. For me it would be improved if it was seamless or sewing reduced to a tiny amount. However, I do realise that making a pattern where you have to pass stitches to a stitch holder may put off people, especially if they do not want a complicated pattern.

The best comment I have received from a stranger is:

Me: Woman: What are you doing?Me: I am knitting a hoodie for a friends baby.
Woman: . That is super cute. Carry on!
.

An update

krispian@krispian.co.uk (Krispian Lowe aka Knitting Kris) — Thu, 16 Oct 2014 22:47:00 +0100

I have updated the main website: www.krispian.co.uk . I have managed to rewrite the site from scratch and I think it looks better than it did.

A cunning hat

krispian@krispian.co.uk (Krispian Lowe aka Knitting Kris) — Tue, 25 Feb 2014 23:01:00 GMT

Just a short post. I completed a cunning hat. It is the Jayne hat from firefly, which has a cult following.

It was a very quick project. Took about three days (couple of hours in the evening). I have enough wool to make another one.

I have the hat to a friend. She loves it. Even her dog loves it.

Foxy Fox Foxy

krispian@krispian.co.uk (Krispian Lowe aka Knitting Kris) — Mon, 10 Feb 2014 10:00:00 GMT

I seem to have a little visitor living in our shed:

Finished Objects

krispian@krispian.co.uk (Krispian Lowe aka Knitting Kris) — Wed, 5 Feb 2014 22:59:00 GMT

These few weeks I have been knitting like the wind! Well not like the wind, but some sort of determined knitting person.

I have knitted the following items:

Hippo [Ravelry Link; pattern link] in Knitted Wild Animals [Amazon.co.uk link] by Sarah Keen.
New born baby blanket [Ravelry Link; pattern link] by Altadena Green from the blog: Altadena’s Baby Designs
Little Rocket [Ravelry Link; Pattern Link] by Megan Kelly
Dwarven Battle Bonnet [Ravelry Link; Pattern Link] by Sally Pointer/ Wicked Woollens.

The hippo, new born baby blanket and little rocket are made for my friend Emma who is expecting.

These have now been shipped to Emma for the big day in a couple of months. The most difficult pattern was the hippo since it consists of 11 different parts. They had to be sewn together and I am not a fan of sewing knitting together.

The baby blanket was a nice any quick pattern. The majority of people who had felt the blanket had to be wrestled with to get it back. The Malabrigo is very soft and lovely.

The rocket was a lovely quick project with the minimal amount of sewing.

The next project was the Dwarven Battle Bonnet for a work colleague and friend: Sarah. The reaction to receiving this knitted gift was fantastic. She loved it. It really lifted my mood and made me smile for the entire day.

Me wearing the beard

Sarah wearing the Beard. She really likes it.

Look a Nazgul

New Toy and First Project

krispian@krispian.co.uk (Krispian Lowe aka Knitting Kris) — Mon, 30 Dec 2013 14:26:00 GMT

In November it was my birthday. I received John Lewis vouchers (very upper middle class department store) as a gift. I decided to spend some of the vouchers, money my other half gave me and some of my own money to buy this:

Yes a manly and macho gift. It is a Brother Sewing machine. It cost £125 and it is the second from bottom of the range that John Lewis sold (of the Brother range).

I also looked at the John Lewis own brand (cheaper) or a Singer Brand (expensive and well known). The shop assistant recommended the Brother one. It is a good Brand and very easy to use (I was told). My cousin works for Brother.

I originally was swayed towards the John Lewis brand; however, the shop assistant said they are more limited, bobbin installation requires 4 separate parts and is fiddely. She opened the bobbin cradle on the John Lewis sewing machine and it seemed to fall to bits in a explosion of small and easily lost parts.

The Singer sewing machine was more expensive and officered less functions. The brand seems to rely on its name to justify the extra price.

Brother always seems a good brand and my cousin has worked for them for sometime and I have never heard a bad word against them.

I parted with some money and took it home the same day.

Since then it has been a steep learning curve.

1. Learning to thread the machine. Easy instructions, but my lack of experience made it slower than it should of been.

2. DO NOT PRESS THE FOOT PEDAL ALL THE WAY DOWN. It was all fast and out of control.

3. Going straight is difficult.

4. What the hell should I do as a first project?

I had some samples for some fabrics. I decided to make a cover for the sewing machine. I remember hearing on a podcast that it is a common first project.

It was quite easy to line up the pieces and then stitch them together. Ininvestigated the different stitch patterns. I found that a straight seam stitch is good for hemming and a zigzag stitch is great for joining two pieces of material together. Also right sides had to be facing each other for invisible joins. It was a good first project. My mum also gave me a few very useful tips.

There we are. It is not bad for a first attempt. My next project will simple, but I have not decided what to create.

On a side note. I went home to my parents. They live near a river. It was very wet and the river flooded. It was about 3 feet (1 m) higher than normal. It looked wonderful.

By the old mill

The path to the nature reserve completely flooded by a stream overflowing. The black thing at the bottom is my parents dog.

The Wylie again.