No, this is not a tale of woe, but a celebration of the weekend away at
Harrietville, in the Victorian Alps, organised by the
Handweavers & Spinners Guild of Victoria (thanks Marilla, Diane! and Dorothy for bringing the shop).
You book in before Christmas, never seems to come, and then it's over in a flash!
This year I attended two classes, properly, and watched in another. Unusual, as I just like to sit around, drink coffee and knit or spin. Some of that did get done, as well as the catching up with friends and making new ones!
The first class I attended was the Moebius cast-on with Nicole. This is the
Cat Bordhi method of cast on and what fun it was. Spun your head around a little, but once past that it's just knit.
This is my first one, in progress. I decided to go big, I mean BIG! With 8mm needles, a fine kid mohair, I cast on 150 sts and then proceeded to use ALL the yarn. Usually, I can get two decent sized cowls with this, but decided to be extravagant.
This is the result and it's gorgeous. You can see how it twists quite nicely, and there's lots of it.
I have immediately begun another. This time, same needles, same yarn, but now only fifty stitches. You can see how the needle is a double loop, as with the cast on, you cast on down the middle and work outwards on both sides. It means, somewhere in the middle the twist means that you effectively change sides. This is a little mind blowing, as you can just knit and end up with half purl and half knit ??? I think a mathematician would have a field day with that description, but, hey, I'm not a mathematician!
I'm trying for a five rows of knit and five rows of purl to give it bounce.
After this, I'm going to try another little one, but a more conventional use of yarn. An 8 ply and try and find a reversible stitch pattern.
Love Harrietville!