A maths lesson...

... no, no – don’t just click on the next blog on your bloglines – it’s all fibry (hmm – that’s one of those times when the American spelling works better – fibery), I promise!

So today I taught my Lower 6th groups (aged 16-17) about composite functions. Mathematically speaking a function is like a number machine where you put a number in and get another number out. A composite function is one where you do this twice (or more than twice).

So (and yes, this is a bit mathsy, bear with me – nod and smile if necessary – the fibre is coming… ) if I have a function (number machine) that I call f – say it adds 2 to every number I put into it, then I would say f(x) = x+2. And if I have another function (number machine) that I call g, and g multiplies every number by 3, then g(x) = 3x. If I put a number (let’s say 5) through f first, then I get 5+2 = 7. If I then put this result through g, I get 3×7 = 21. And I call it gf(x) because it’s g of f of x.

And by now you’ll be splitting into two camps – there will be those of you muttering that it’s slightly insulting that I’m going so slowly, and those whose eyes are starting to glaze over.

Here’s the fibre:

If I put FIBRE

through the function SPINNING

I get the result YARN

If I then put the YARN

through the function KNITTING

I get a SHAWL

So if Spinning is S(x) and Knitting is K(x) then KS(fibre)=Shawl

It’s a good analogy, and they liked it – and it meant I got to play with fibre IN THE CLASSROOM!!

Someone may be interested...

The following email appeared in my inbox this morning – I doubt I’ll have anything. But if you have any designs lurking around that you’ve not done anything with why not send them in?

Hi,

My name is Susan Ripley and I am gathering knitting and crochet patterns
for the 2009 Pattern-A-Day Calendars from Accord Publishing. You were on
our list of last year’s contributors and I am contacting you today in the
hopes that you will submit a pattern or hang the attached flyer somewhere
in your store or post it to your website / BLOG / PODCAST to let your
friends and customers know about the design contest and the chance to get
their designs published. You could also email the flyer if you have a
mailing list. Patterns are accepted from individuals, shops, charities and
yarn companies. There are no restrictions and the patterns can also be
something that is currently being distributed for free.

Some of the yarn shops that have worked with us in the past have also
offered fun pattern design/writing classes. This is a great way to get
customers into your store while taking advantage of this great contest.
$500 will be awarded as First place for both calendars; there are also 2nd
and 3rd place prizes; and all contributors whose patterns are used will
receive a 2009 calendar.

Please go to our website at http://www.knittingpatternaday.com and learn
more about the submission requirements and our contest. The deadline is
December 15th, but early submissions are appreciated. If you have any
questions, please contact me and I will gladly answer your questions. If
your email program stripped the PDF, you can download the flyer at
http://knittingpatternaday.com/images/designcontest.pdf

Thanks,
Susan Ripley
———————Susan Ripley, Creative Director

Ripley Designs, Inc
1860 Sandy Plains Rd
Suite 204-186
Marietta GA 30066

phone: 678-540-9205
fax: 678-302-9965
cell: 404-964-5882

website: http://www.ripleydesigns.com
“Providing graphic and web design services to the Atlanta area.”

Wow!

And again, wow!

It came...

First there was this:

Which opened to reveal this:

Which after a couple of hours (including cooking dinner – sausage and mash with broccoli – not taxing, but still… ) looked like this:

And by the time it was time for Adam’s bath, I’d spun this:

All this AND The High Life to watch this evening – what more could a woman ask for?

(Oh, not to have tonsillitis I guess, but it’s not too bad, and I’ve decided to try to ignore it – except for the bit where I got John to do most of bedtime… )

Update
And then I spun this:

John said “Of course, it won’t be anywhere near balanced”... Pah!!!

Camp Nostalgia

One of the best birthday presents I received last month (apart from a very generous kick start to my spinning wheel fund… but let’s try not to think too much about that – I’m under house arrest today waiting for Parcel Force to deliver it, and it’s not here yet and it’s already 2:30… – it’s not looking good )

Getting back to the good present – a couple of months’ membership of LoveFilm – and today one of the DVDs I’ve been most looking forward to arrived. The High Life – utterly camp and utterly wonderful, and now only available second hand – last time I looked on Amazon it was about £50, but here are a few tasters:

Not that I’ve watched any of the episodes yet, (I’m being good and waiting for John to get home… ) but one of my favourites was when they decided to write a Eurovision Song entry:

(Just so you know – this has a certificate 12.)

Which goes to make me wonder about the inspiration for this:

A new day...

Three very good things today:

1) I’ve just bought a spinning wheel (see, we knew I wasn’t going to wait another 18 months, didn’t we?!) It’s a second hand Ashford Traveller from P & M Woolcraft. Martin took it apart and sent it off to me today. It should arrive on Monday, in time for me to put it back together and take it to Thriplow Spinners on Tuesday. If I really can’t get on with it (which seems unlikely) and if I get it back to him by 25 June, I can get my money back.

2) My prize from Diane arrived.

Very pretty BFL dyed by Fyberspates, 2 stitchmarkers and some silk hankies. So now I’m really hoping that spinning silk hankies is on Diane’s list of tutorials for her Sunday Spin-A-Long.

3) One of our clever clever chickens laid an egg They certainly have impeccable timing – just as we really needed cheering up in the chicken-keeping department, they made it all worth while.
We don’t know who laid it, but it weighs 55g

RIP Lola

We now have just 2 chickens.

Look what I found...

This little beauty came home with me from Spinning Group last night. Sadly it’s already been restored to its rightful owner. But it was fun while it lasted. And do I want a wheel of my very own? What do you think? (Do we think I’ll stick to my original “I can have one in 18 months if I’m still spinning” resolution?)

With it I managed to make this:

which, when plied (plyed? – No, plied looks right) came out like this:

Kind of novelty-ish, but not too bad for a beginner. (Click on the image to see it in its full slubby glory.)

And although I’ve had to return this one (it’s only fair, it’s Eleanor’s only wheel), Sara has kindly offered to lend me one of hers for a bit. All we need to do is to co-ordinate a time for me to pick it up.

On the subject of plying – you know how when you get the same message from two different sources it starts to feel a bit personal? Diane’s latest Sunday Spin-A-Long is all about Andean plying. I’d already decided that this is something I need to try. Then when I arrived at spinning last night, Sara lent me the Summer 2007 Spin-Off – especially because it has an article on Andean plying.

Alright already – I’ll have a go:

Winding it round my hand:

Bracelet round my wrist:

Plied yarn on the niddy noddy:

(sorry about the blurry images)

I have to say that I found Diane’s tutorial a lot easier to follow than the Spin-Off one. It didn’t involve two different ways of wrapping the yarn, but seemed to work just as well.

For my next trick: Andean plying on a spindle…

Oh, and in totally different news, Adam is going to have to have another tooth out. It’s exactly the same one as last time, but on the other side. Still, at least this time we’ve more idea of what it involves, and I’m far more comfortable with the idea that it’s just “one of those things” rather than me being a BAD MOTHER.

And we still have no eggs.

Bad news, good news...

Bad news:

No knitter wants to see this:
when the instructions say “yo K1 yo K2 yo K3”. Especially not when there are over 420 stitches on the needle. ESPECIALLY not when I’ve found the mistake – in the second repeat…

Good news:
I’ve had an email from Diane – I’ve won the prize draw for her first Sunday Spin-a-Long. The second one is on Andean Plying (pdf to download) – the tutorial looks very clear, so I just need to sort out some fibre and have a go.

(Incidentally, my big problem at the moment is that the yarn I’m spinning keeps snapping – I don’t think I’m doing anything different than I have been doing – and it’s definitely snapping, rather than just drifting apart because I’ve not got enough twist. Hmmm… This does not a happy spinner make… )

Two-timing...

I have a confession to make. I’ve been unfaithful. On Tuesday I went to a different group.

Before you start judging me, can we backtrack a little?

On Sunday I was at a Christening party where I met the baby’s (very cute baby – totally grown out of this now) aunt, who casually let the phrase “doing some spinning” drop into conversation… I don’t believe I actually yelped “Ooh, oooh, oooooh, – SPINNING?!!!??!!!”, but the upshot is that I’ve discovered the Thriplow Spinning Club. Unfortunately they meet on Tuesdays, which clashes with KTog – hence the infidelity. Now I think I can be involved with two knitting (or spinning-and-knitting) groups at once? I generally only make it to KTog once a month anyway (when I can cycle), so I can go to spinning the other 3 Tuesdays. Mind you, the spinners are very persuasive – not only do they spin, but they take along their knitting, and they make cakes. And when I tried to weasel my way out of the cake bit by apologising that I’m Coeliac – at least 3 of them piped up that they will make gluten-free cakes for me!

But KTog knitters, I promise I haven’t forgotten you – although as ever I’ve lost track of when we’re meeting where – if I don’t turn up to the Grad Pad, it’s confusion and incompetence, nothing more sinister.

Sooo… spinning… I was all “I’m very much a beginner, I need help” and they were rather “You seem to be doing fine – what do you think you need help with?” – and then my spindle crashed to the floor – very embarrassing! But I did get to have a tiny go on Eleanor’s wheel (an Ashford Joy), and I’m hoping that next week I’ll get another go, and a go on Sarah’s wheel too (a Victoria? I think… )

But I have more spinning to show – after posting a question on the Spindlers Yahoo Group I realised that all my ideas about how to get balanced yarn when I’m plying were completely wrong. The latest efforts are much better:

And because yet again I forgot to include anything for scaling – here is an update on Kiri – I’m using 4mm needles (new Addi lace circs ) so you can get some idea of the weight of the yarn (click for a larger version).

There’s no way in which I’m going to be able to keep the yarn consistent as I spin it up, but I think the shawl, although not technically brilliant, will still be beautiful, and I will love it.

Oh, and I’ve worked out that this:

is not the way to go when trying to get a centre pull ball…

Oh, and some concern was expressed at felting John’s slippers separately – but the second one came out fine (the advantage of doing it when John was home – it went straight on his foot as it came out of the machine )

Before and after...

– second clog now having the living daylights bashed out of it on a boil wash. (Hmmm – the instructions say to use a toploading washing machine and check after 10 min, and then every 5 min – we have a front-loader, and for the first slipper one boil wash cycle wasn’t enough… Don’t you just love how much they shrink though? I know that absolutely everyone has already made the Fiber trends felted clogs (scroll down, then scroll down some more… ), but I don’t care if I am jumping on the last but twenty bandwagon – they are fab!

Oh, and since I’ve still got about 30 rows of the Shetland Garden shawl to do (I took Adam and Ruth to Cheeky Monkeys yesterday – an hour and a quarter equals 2 1/2 rows… ), and I haven’t yet finished the pea pod baby jacket, nor have I started my mother’s second sock, nor my second zebra sock – I obviously wouldn’t have started a Kiri by All Tangled Up would I? (yeah, yeah, I know – another late bandwagon-joining)

Oh, it turns out I would…
– knitted from my extremely inexpertly spun “Before the storm” (see the pic from a couple of days ago) from A Piece of Vermont. I’m beginning to realise how to get a balanced yarn, but I’m not there yet (not even nearly there), but I’m going to claim that all infelicities are down to the beauty of having a handmade product – if I wanted perfection I could buy one… So if you click on the picture, do so to ooh and ahh over the wonderful colours – I know that I’m doing nothing to stop them getting “muddy”, but I love the subtle blending and the brooding “before the storm”ness of it all.

But there’s laundry to be folded – it’s getting a bit archaeological in the airing cupboard…