a brief summary of Camp

I arrived at the Knitters' Guild of NSW (Inc) Camp on Friday evening at 5:20, after an almost three hour trip - half an hour of which I spent travelling just four kilometres (2.5 miles). A police operation was underway in Castle Hill (a motorist been shot by the police the day before) so there were major roads closed in the area.

I was given a nice twin bed motel-style room with en-suite which I shared with a member of my own knitting group so the accommodation was much better than I was expecting. The word "camp" conjures up bunk beds and dormitory style rooms so it was a very pleasant surprise. The food was quite good and there seemed to be enough for everybody although those at the end of the queue missed out on pumpkin for dinner one night.

I took my camera, charged the batteries overnight and then was too busy to take any photos!

On Saturday I tutored an all day workshop on entrelac knitting. I am by no means an expert but I have knitted quite a few blankets in garter stitch entrelac so I am very familiar with the technique.

All the samples I prepared were knitted in acrylic (I don't like "wasting" wool for knitting samples and I hope they'll be protected from insect attack!) and unblocked: I wanted the participants to see what their work would look like on the needles - which is not always like a blocked piece; this is especially true of entrelac.

In the first session of the day, I taught the participants how the squares of entrelac are joined together. We worked in garter stitch: but some of those squares were knitted entirely in purl. The samples show the same square knitted in one handpainted yarn and in two contrasting yarns. The participants all made the sample with two yarns so that hey could see how it comes togehter.

After lunch came the harder session: not only did the participants learn how to knit traditional entrelac in stocking stitch, which meant making triangles at the base, sides and top of their sample, but I also taught them to knit backwards and asked them, if they could, to knit with the right side facing for the rest of the day. Knitting backwards is knitting the work from the right needle to the left needle; this saves turning the work around at the end of every eight stitch row which, with practice, is actually faster than knitting and purling.

Most of the participants got it and were happy to keep knitting that way (slowly) for the remainder of the afternoon. Some of them said they really enjoyed knitting backwards, which was a real bonus!

The sample shows the difference in size and finish knitting the same pattern in stocking stitch versus garter stitch - same needles, same yarn, same number of stitches, same knitter.

For the fast finishers, there was a bonus sample: lace entrelac. Well, a combination of lace and garter stitch as seen below.

I was given many thanks and compliments for the workshop which I really appreciated.

On Sunday I was exhausted. 8:30am-5:50pm was a long, long day for me! The weather was miserable, and got worse as the weekend progressed. I had planned to leave on Sunday afternoon after the intarsia workshop I was taking, but the combination of heavy rain and fatigue made me decide to leave at lunch time on Sunday.

I had a good drive home, despite the heavy rain at the beginning of the trip, and was home in about two and half hours. It was the first time in a very long while since I had driven that kind of distance (170km - 106.5 miles - each way) so I was quite pleased with myself.

I had a wonderful time (despite the weather and the exhaustion) and would encourage Guild members to start saving now for Camp 2013. And be sure to let the Committee know what workshops you would like to see at the next camp.

I'm back!

Today life returns to something resembling "normalcy".

My sinuses are still not completely clear but that is normal for me! At least I can do something other than sleep or sit with my head as still as possible. Thanks to all those who sent good wishes and prayers my way during my fight with acute sinusitis.

I have been away from home the past two weekends: the first we travelled to Armidale to my niece's 21st birthday. The second, this past weekend, I went to the biennial camp of the Knitters' Guild of NSW (Inc) - there will be a separate post about that; all I need to say here was I had a great time!

In the week between Armidale and the Camp, we had my mother staying with us. There were visits from DD (mum's eldest grand-daughter) and the Grandboys, a visit to my MIL, a visit to my brother and his family, and a special birthday outing - the subject of another separate post (I need to have something to write about! LOL)

I must be the world's most boring daughter because while mum was here she had time to read two novels: The Tin Ticket (the central character of which is my dad's great-great-grandmother: a convict originally from Glasgow, Scotland) and The Drovers. Mum really loves Australian novels so once she started reading she couldn't put the books down.

The truth is that while mum was here (and reading), I had to finish knitting some samples for Camp. I had knitted samples and written patterns, but I had to test knit the patterns! Let me tell you that is not as easy as it sounds; my brain knows how to do entrelac and it was hard to follow the pattern word for word so some mistakes were, unfortunately, found over the weekend!

I foolishly also thought I could knit a short-sleeved jumper in two weeks! Who am I kidding? I did about twenty percent of it, I suppose. Which, in the end, is just as well, as I have decided to rip it all out anyway. It is being knitted in Moda Vera "Bamboo Wave", which is textured (thick and thin) yarn: 60% bamboo and 40% cotton. I have gauge for the jumper but it's still too loose and drapey - and given that cotton drops a lot, I have decided, after consultation with another knitter whose skills I admire and trust, to rip it out (and, maybe, start again).

The jumper is the Morning, Noon and Night Sweater (Ravelry link - third photo) by Gwen Bortner, in her book Entree to Entrelac. I was quite happy with most of it (apart from the slowness of entrelac) but, as explained, it must be ripped out -- when I can bring myself to do it.

I have also been knitting on my garter stitch blanket (since I came home, happy, but exhausted, from Camp). I am just past halfway with that.

What you see here is approximately 40 inches wide and 45 inches long. The top edge is on a Knitpicks cable, ready for me to knit in the other direction. The bottom is on the 4.5mm circular needles I am using to knit this DK blanket. I got bored with one row per colour so I am now knitting a Fibonacci sequence: 1-1-2-3-2-1-1-2-3-2- etc. Yes, all those ends are still hanging out but wait till you see what I do with them!

There has also been some sock knitting - again the subject of another post.

Why so much knitting? It was the only craft I could cope with for the last month or so! And even then the pattern needed to be fairly simple! I knitted in front of the television for up to five hours a day, staring straight ahead - moving the head as little as possible!

In the midst of my pain and woolly-headedness, I just couldn't face sewing so there has been very little of that. In fact, I have only used my sewing machine twice in this past five weeks; once to do the block which was the subject of this post, and on Monday last week when I went to sewing class for the first time in three weeks. I attempted to make another block but I have either lost my ability to sew in straight lines or perhaps I never had it in the first place! Either way, patchwork is dependent on cutting and sewing accurately - the more seams there are, the more accurate one must be! Much, much more accurate than one needs to be for dress-making! And I have discovered that I am not accurate enough!

Sadly, these two blocks were to be sent to So Sarah Sews to be sewn into quilt tops for girls in the foster care system who have been doing it tough. I really wanted to be part of this, but just felt that my work wasn't up to scratch. I had to write to Sarah and ask to be allowed out of the group -- I feel bad for letting her down but I'm sure it will be easier for her to make two extra blocks than to make mine fit! I could make new blocks, but Sarah wanted them by 7th October - two days from now; she lives in the USA and I live in Australia so it was never going to happen for me!

Having been away from my computer since before the trip to Armidale, I have spent hours since I came home from Camp trying to catch up with other people's blogs. Since there are 165 blogs on my Blog Reading List, this is no mean feat. I spent three hours today reading all and commenting on some of the posts that were published three days ago and two days ago, so another few hours should find me caught up.

I cannot set even weekly or monthly goals - they seem too daunting; I will just have to take things as they come for the next little while.

So now, I'm off to re-acquaint myself with Jan, before she forgets who I am entirely!

I felt honoured

Last week I received a phone call from the member of the Knitters' Guild of NSW who is organising the biannual camp. She had heard that I was a good teacher and had recently done a couple of workshop on entrelac. She wanted to know if I would teach a session or two at the camp.

I was flattered. I wondered who had said something - but I think I have that figured out (three of the Guild's current executive are members of the same group to which I belong). Part of me wanted to say "yes" but part of me resisted.

You see, the camp is always held on the Long Weekend in October. WM has a rostered day off every fourth Friday and for the past couple of years, that Friday has been at the start of the October Long Weekend - as it is this year. Because he has four days off, we often go away.

So, we talked it over and guess what - I'm teaching two sessions of entrelac at the camp in October.

Is anyone else going to camp?