Some cheery yarnbombing appears!

Just when I am feeling I never get enough time to knit, someone nearby clearly has time to spare! This appeared on a lamppost and it is just lovely. A lovely sight, and a lovely thing.

 

 

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This weekend: a cracker!

Firstly, lovely local yarnbombing spotted at the pub:

Then, feeling in need of a treat, I bought Mollie Makes, after a quick Twitter poll about which crafty magazine people rated at the moment. By the time I got to sit down and read it, we were on the coast and you can just see the sea in the distance here:

Sunday in Suffolk saw the opening of lots of gorgeous gardens in Bury St Edmunds, in aid of St Nicholas Hospice. This is such a good cause; we've been three years running now, and somehow the sun always shines! So many people take the time and trouble to open their gardens - businesses, churches and private homes of all kinds. There are so many moments where we wandered through little alleyways beside houses, only to emerge gasping at the size and beauty of people's gardens. We had some real #CuriousCounty moments: where else would you hear a recorder group play What Shall We Do With The Drunken Sailor while you look at an informative display of Victorian lawnmowers, or drink Pimms down a lane lined with plant and cake stalls? People must have found the gardening hard recently with the terrible weather, but all the plots looked great and the atmosphere was fantastic.

And, finally - roses from my mother's garden. Their scent is everywhere - finally, a hint that Summer may be on its way!

 

 

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In Which I See Some Valentine's Yarnbombing

 

 

 

Here's my Louisa Harding Hiking Hat, looking out towards Blakeney! It was a gorgeous day, with a dark, bright light - still winter, really. And, below, the cheery sight of some Sheringham yarnbombing!

 

These were at the crossroads by the station, just in time for Valentine's Day!

 

 

There's so often some fabulous yarnbombing in Sheringham: I've blogged here about knitted fish, flags and now hearts! Whoever is doing this, I salute you - it's really cheerful and lovely to spot it. The hearts in the bushes were gorgeous. Sadly, it's all been taken down now, but I'm sure it made other people smile as well as me! It's also inspiring me to mount a knitted onslaught on a local landmark ... ;)

In Which I Venture to Les Tricoteuses & find yarnbombing in Sheringham...

A lovely sunny day in Holt last week - and a browse in a lovely wool shop:

I was really keen to check out this shop properly - I love the name (with its connotations of gallows knitting) and Chapel Yard, its location, has great little shops and galleries. The huge window shows the lovely yarns inside.

This is a pretty good generic picture, actually, of all the Places To Buy Yarn that I like - the gorgeous coloured patty-shaped balls of pure wool. This shop has an excellent range of luxurious wools - everywhere I looked there was more! It was great to meet Mary Pembleton, the owner; she turned down her German rock music to talk about the shop, our dislike of acrylic, "squeaky" wool,  and showed me her newest arrival - *British*, no less - Debbie Bliss Blue Faced Leicester Aran yarn, in gorgeous autumnal shades -

I want to go back and buy the mustardy colour to make some gloves I've found a pattern for in Bronwyn Lowenthal's Love to Knit  - Mary has knitted the swatch here in red and it feels dense and lovely and woolly! She has the Debbie Bliss accompanying pattern book, too. Bravo, Les Tricoteuses! www.lestricoteuses.co.uk

The knitting theme dominated our trip to Sheringham, too; luckily, my Lady Friend is a patient partner. First I had to snap this part of the sea front mural:

But then - huge excitement - we saw more Sheringham *yarnbombing*: fantastic knitted fish and starfish on the seafront -

Aren't these great? I wonder if it's those @NorfolkNinjaKnitters again ;)

On a rainy day, we went to Norwich. While the Lady Friend had  a tour of the Cathedral, I paid a visit to Jarrolds, a great independent with lots of lovely Sirdar wool and good haberdashery bits too. Had a crochet conversation with the sales assistant who was wearing a black crochet collar that she'd made herself. Then, a trip to the Cathedral refectory:

And a scrumptious cheese scone:

I love Emma Bridgewater's crockery - though the use of this Biblical quotation is rather surprising, as the second part of the verse from the Song of Songs reads, "For I am sick of love." I suppose that's why only the first part is on the plate!  I know there's no mention of a Wednesday #WIP - but that[s because my Sarah Hatton jacket is still .... still .... still on the go! 

Wednesday's #WIP, Graffiti Knitting & More Adventures in Haberdashery

So, here is my current #WIP: a jacket, for me. It's a Sarah Dallas moss stitch jacket from Rowan's Scottish Inspirations, using lovely Debbie Bliss Glen  wool I picked up in the Cafe Knit sale. It's beautiful wool; I'm just hoping it knits up like the pattern as I was too lazy to knit a tension square . . . am I the only one?! I am rather too near the sea in North Norfolk in this picture - I had to shift back a bit a few moments after I took this. I'm rather pleased with my cheapy jelly shoes, too!

Norwich  library has a fantastic selection of knitting and crochet books - and look what some knitters have done to the section!

This probably isn't technically yarn-bombing, actually, as it's to advertise a new Knit and Natter group they're starting up there - but it looks great.

No trip to Norwich is complete without a rummage in the haberdashery department of Jarrolds, and here is one of my mug huggers en route:

They have some gorgeous VV Rouleaux ribbon on sale which i'm rather regretting not having bought: lace plus velvet . . .  hm, maybe I can give them a ring. . . .  ;)  I did manage to buy some red "Live...Love...Laugh" ribbon and a Rico Aran pattern - they had lots of lovely things.

I wonder if I can take a break from the jacket - much as I love it - to have a go at the crochet necklace and collar I've Tweeted about . . .  they're beautiful and there are so few crochet things I actually *know* I will use....

Yes, I Can Make a Blog Post out of a Keep Cup and a Wool Shop

I am childishly pleased with my day so far. This picture shows my hugely exciting, er, travel cup. I popped to our lovely independent cafe, The Coffee House, on Moreton Hall, today. They have a table full of these great reusable cups for sale. Now, I suppose it has been flown in from Australia, but ... it is usable by baristas in coffee shops, so I am smugly saving that ugly takeaway packaging each time I use it. It can go in the dishwasher at home, too. What's more - every time someone uses one in The Coffee House, you get 10% off your drink! Phew! Can it get any more necessary to have one of these? Mind you, it got mildly embarrassing as the lovely cafe ladies said you can choose the colour of each component...so I swapped lids....bodies....lids...cap bits an alarming number of times. The creation above, then, is truly unique. I need to get out more. Actually - I see a window of opportunity for a knitted Keep Cup hugger . . .

Now - moving swiftly on - for a recent trip to Oxford's new(ish) haberdashery shop, Darn It & Stitch. I was just wondering where, down all the narrow streets off the High this was, when I saw this bicycle on St Aldate's. I see from their blog that the Darn-It-&-Stitchers have been yarnbombing Oxford in the last week or so, and this bike seat cover is available via them on Ravelry!

Anyway:

This is the outside of the shop. It is slightly misty somehow because it was boiling hot and I'm not sure my BlackBerry enjoyed such a lot of light. Inside, the shop is laid out like the bread and fruit are at a deli -

It's a great informal layout, and somehow the boxes encourage you to, er, pinch the wool. The ribbons and other 'notions' are all good, too, and I bought myself some completely unnecessary but lovely ribbon, which I'm sure I will need for something, soon:

They run classes, too, called Pinworks, from their upstairs room: find out more at www.darnitandstitch.com. The woman at the till was lovely, too, and the shop is, I bet, a great addition to Oxford's shops. I'll have to plan another trip...

Ah - coffee and wool. What more could you want on a drizzly Monday?

Been Caught Knitting - Out and About

Recently I've got a bit over-excited when I've seen hand-knitted or crocheted things in public - must be something to do with Knitting In Public week earlier this month! Saw these lovely crochet blankets in a sunny corner of the gorgeous gardens of some almshouses when exploring some Hidden Gardens last weekend. Seeing these really made me want to make a crochet blanket, something I haven't done since the birth of my first nephew, seven years ago. I wouldn't have gone for the bright colours here, but they look great against the geraniums. The view from this bench would be hundreds of roses in yellow, red and peach - fabulous. I saw a friend looking at the same garden, and she was wondering how soon we could put our names down for these houses! We're not 40 yet, even, but hey - never to early to start planning which almshouse to retire to!

Once again on the theme of Been Caught Knitting, here is a shot of one of my mug huggers, held by my patient girlfriend, on the Sheringham seafront! It was a bit blustery for June so we really needed a coffee. Out of shot here is a lovely new bag of yarn from Sheringham's wool shop, Creative Crafts, to make the aforementioned girlfriend a jumper. A good day out!

Now for the most glamorous location that one of my mug-huggers has made it to:

New York! Sadly I didn't go on this trip, but, hey, at least my knitting did!

Last pic for this post: here is the intrepid New York mug-hugger in Christopher Park, New York - an important location in the history of the gay rights movement. It was here that the notorious Stonewall Inn was located, and this was the destination of the first American gay rights march in 1969. Does this count at yarnbombing?!

My plan for my next post: to photograph some more knitting and crochet while out and about. I will ask people's permission - but I love spotting hand made things and hearing about how they're made. Fingers crossed that I find some willing specimens!

Graffiti Knitting hits North Norfolk

I wonder who has knitted these? In Sheringham this week, I saw at least 5 of these lovely knitted crowns, many complete with jewels and glittery bits, between the station and the beach. There are no signs or stickers around them, and the window of Sheringham's wool shop, Creative Crafts, is giving nothing away: it advertises a weekly Knit n Natter, but I can't imagine its usual clientele doing anything as subversive as yarn bombing street lights with freestyle crowns. They are fab! They are glitzy and jaunty and somehow really cheering to see. I think this is the first time I've actually spotted some graffiti knitting without being told that it is there. So, three cheers for the Sheringham Graffiti Knitter(s), whoever you are! I think these are just great!

Having seen these, I began to take more notice of the murals and artwork in Sheringham  - resulting in a rather grim plaque on the Art Trail:

The bronze plaque on the left says that the fisherman on the right are wearing traditional "ganseys", or knitted jerseys. Apparently, the complicated Aran patterns were so that the women could identify their men if they drowned - they would recognise the pattern! Eeek! And, sure enough, though my crummy BlackBerry photo doesn's make this clear, the two men on the plaque have got jumpers with different patterns on. What a horrible thought.

However - who would have thought that Sheringham was so arty? - I *then* came across this just fantastic piece of beach hut art:

I hope the owners don't mind me using this here - the doors were locked and there was no-one around. The back ground is yellower than it is here and the whole hut is a lovely primrose colour, with this black silhouette as the only decoration. Brilliant. If only she'd been knitting instead of reading.

But what of knitting? I *can't* get my bootees right (what a sentence), so I have unravelled them and turned my back on them. But the Sirdar chunky jumper is coming along really nicely. I think my Lady Friend is right, and it is basically a kids' jumper in terms of its school story colours (red and grey), but chunky is speedy and it has cables - which I love - so I am pleased.  I did knit quite a bit of it, in between finding knitted crowns on the streets, but I also spent quite a long time reading the new Patrick Gale, A Perfectly Good Man. His writing is very good: warm, evocative of Cornwall, and witty. I'm not competent to knit and read, so occasionally Patrick Gale won.

I'd love to hear any news of the Sheringham Yarn Bombers!

Finally: quick Wednesday WIP. As I've just mentioned, the Sirdar jumper is the WIP. You can see it in the previous post, where I'm knitting it with a lovely sea view!