Things I learnt at Knit Camp

Steeking is easy and fun.
Irregular colourwork when worked backed and forth is neither easy, nor fun.
The "itch factor" of a yarn depends on both the diameter and length of the fibre (short fine fibres may feel more itchy than longer, coarser fibres).
I have been cooking American pancakes at too high a heat (I could never figure out why the butter always burnt). I am now the queen of American pancakes based on the way people were wolfing them down although that may also have been to do with the strawberries and ice-cream topping (for breakfast folks!).
All the cool kids are wearing these shoes http://www.schuh.co.uk/womens-green-red-or-dead-rolo/1304474020/ - expect to see my new pair in forthcoming sock FO posts.
Knitting really is where all the great women are (to quote Felix).

Enough waffling though, I know what you really want to see is the yarn.



I came out of Deb Robson's class even more convinced that knitting from British breed specific yarn was the way to go. We used mostly Blacker Designs yarn in the two sessions of Deb's class on Friday and as soon as we hit the lunch break we headed over to Sue Blacker's stand to say thank you and to buy yarn.

I bought 5 balls of the Cotswold dk yarn on Friday to knit another seamless hybrid lace sweater (I already have some lace motifs picked out from Mikal's Vogue stitchionary) and I bought a single ball of the raspberry coloured Ryeland on Saturday with no particular plan in mind - it was just such a pretty colour.



Earlier in the week I had continued the British yarn theme (if you can continue something in advance) by buying yarn for the Cloisonne Jacket from New Lanark Mill. This is such lovely stuff. It's knitting up very quickly too, I'm already onto the sleeves of the jacket and keep breaking off from this blog post to work on the crochet reinforcement for the steek.

Finally I bought some gorgeous sorbet coloured fibre from Old Maiden Aunt. I love Lilith's colours and deliberately went for something a bit outside my usual range (plum through to wine coloured).



The colours are a bit brighter than they show up in this photograph - I'm sorely tempted to spin them both up the same weight and then stripe them!

Best of the weekend*

Best spinning:



Superwash merino/seacell blend from The Thylacine. This is spinning up beautifully smooth and even and I'm already onto the second ply. You can get through a lot of fibre during a Tour stage.

Best plying:



Shetland fibre in Moody from Old Maiden Aunt. I love this so much. I had a bit of a 'mare plying it because I broke the thread a couple of times and then couldn't find the end (argh!) but I managed it somehow (by dint of winding off little bits onto cotton spools) and have ended up with over 400 metres of fingering weight yarn.

Best jamming:



The Co-op had yellow-stickered gooseberries when I went in to buy provisions for lunch on Sunday so I bought a punnet on impulse and made gooseberry and ginger jam in the afternoon. I think I had my best jam making result yet as I actually managed to heat the jam to the setting point for the first time after realising that I had to split it into smaller batches to avoid it boiling over before reaching 104 degrees C. I had some on toast this morning and it was yummy.

Best cake:



I ran all the way to Oxford (just under 8 miles) for this cake and boy was it worth it. I even, despite having to run for the bus on the way back, managed to get it home in pristine condition which almost never happens. I ate it with a cup of Clipper decaf tea whilst watching Sunday's stage of the Tour (which I am enjoying hugely) and spinning the lovely sock fibre.

Best flowers:





Roses in the Blenheim Palace rose garden which is now in full swing.

Best surprise:





Half marks to everyone who guessed it was a baby surprise jacket. It's actually a lady surprise shrug. I didn't have to make any mods to the pattern on this, apart from knitting it on 5mm needles, but I have big plans for a lady surprise sweater in Garthenor organic yarn which will be amazing.

* idea shamelessly homaged/plagiarised from WordsandStitches