Spreading some colour!

Yesterday I saw a note on my To Do list - 'Check Zazzle and Add something!' . It must have been there for months.

Zazzle is a print-on-demand (or POD) site based in the USA but with an international marketplace. People can create their own templates or upload images for use on various printed and personalised products, and also sell their designs. I was starting to get to know my way around it (and other POD sites) better, when my old computer crashed terminally and I lost access to Photoshop Elements, which I used to use to manipulate images to create digital art.

Amongst the deluge of messages into my inboxes, at some point there will have been a 'we are changing our policies' message, which prompted me to add the job of checking it out to the list. But, as usual, I didn't get around to it for months. When I checked my account, there was a minus figure! Wait, what? 'Non-contributing account fees' have wiped out the paltry balance I had from sales commissions, because I hadn't been in there to do anything but look for since their policy change back in April.
Zazzle also have a policy of expecting their users who sell to create 'collections', curating designs they like from other Zazzle users, and sharing on social media. This way, you complete your user profile and raise your visibility. If you don't, your designs are consigned to the bottom of the search pile. It's fair enough, the products need to be promoted and POD sites have a huge number of designs, all vying for attention.

So, okay, lesson learned. I shall have to be more active, and that will be okay, because over the past few months I have been learning how to use GIMP (Gnu Image Manipulation Program). I also have a new image to go.

I remembered that I didn't find the POD sites easy to navigate as a designer/seller and had written myself some notes. These came in handy so that I could upload the image easily, but when it came to applying it quickly across a whole range of products, the system only came up with 20, and only a few suited the image. Hmm. I suspect Zazzle's 'quick create' option over their range of products left them with huge numbers of items, some of which weren't ideal for the image. They want their designers to think a bit more about what they offer and that's fair enough. It might also be a difference between working from Zazzle.co.uk instead of Zazzle.com, as most of the designs are made up in the USA, hence a UK Sterling price which makes me gasp a little, so that's another thing to look into.
I went through to my existing products list, and found most of it hidden from the public, so it wouldn't come up in a search or be available for sales. That's not good, I thought I'd left it all public; perhaps this is another difference between .co.uk and .com? There were also some products which were being discontinued, so I deleted them and a few other items (like dartboards and baseball caps) which I don't really want to offer my designs on.

While thinking about what I do want to offer, I had a look at my 'collections', started several months ago. Some were empty, and I know I hadn't left them that way, so probably the items I'd previously added had been removed by their designers. I created a few new collections, including one for cushions, not that I can afford them, unfortunately.

With a bit of work, I found my profile completion had gone from 25% to 60%.

While I've been playing with kaleidoscopic art, one of the issues is creating a nice image on a rectangle; a square seems to lend itself much better to the reflections and repetition of a kaleidoscopic image. I tested out my new image on a square cushion and liked it, so completed that for sale (although it will take 24 hours or so to show up).
Then I loaded another image (which I thought I'd already loaded, but couldn't find it) and did another cushion. I'm biased, obviously, but I think they look lovely. There are options for two sizes and different fabrics.

I checked my profile completion and it had gone down to 55%. How does that work? A bit more product 'tidying', and it bounced up to 75%. I looked for my cushions so that I could copy their links into this, and the profile completion had bounced back down to 55%. I visited my store description, replaced the banner with a neater one, and the completion rate is up to 65%. And my products' visibility depends on this?

Aaargh!

With the amount of work involved here (it's not as simple as just uploading something!), I claim 2 creations.
Create 365 totals:
This batch of things: 2
Cumulative total: 37

Ridge and Furrow cowl

This seemed like a good pattern to use up some of my mighty acrylic DK stash and it had been languishing in my Ravelry queue for ages, so I started it in mid February.

Initially, I loved it. I chose navy as the main colour, and another 16 contrast colours: teal, moss, olive, moorland green, sapphire, violet, lavender, lilac, magenta, claret, royal purple, aubergine, royal blue, mid-blue, petrol and pine (a dark bluish green). With 5mm needles and a provisional crochet cast on, I was off and it progressed quite well. I decided to work forwards and backwards through the colours twice and loved the colourful garter stitch ridges standing out against the navy background.

The more I knitted, the more I fretted about getting the ends neatly and securely knitted/woven in. I'd dismissed the idea of somehow carrying the various yarns up one of the edges. I put it down for several weeks while I researched methods of tidily working in the ends and picked it up again just to get it finished. By three quarters of the way through I'd fallen out of love with it, and then became even more fed up when it came to tidying up all the loose ends. At least picking up stitches onto a 5mm circular needle in order to finish the edges was quick and I liked the colourful purl 'blips'.

It's very nice, but the hassle of knitting it has cured me of wanting it for myself. I've decided this one is for the sales basket on my craft sales table at a local midsummer fun day next weekend. This one-off is destined for someone else!

Spring Steps socks

After the Hermione’s and wearing my pair of ‘Desk Drawer socks’, I decided perhaps my own ‘Everyday’ socks could be improved and that I should have a quick experiment. I didn't fancy the Stylecraft Head Over Heels 'Sugar Loaf' for a pair of my own socks (I've had enough pink for the time being from the 'Olympus' colourway used for the Hermione socks), but I wouldn't have bought the yarn if I didn't think it was quite pretty. Lovely, fresh, pastel colours would put a spring in someone's step, so I decided that this pair should go into my stock, either for sale or as a raffle prize or giveaway.

Here's the pattern:

Yarn & Needles: 4 ply yarn sock yarn on 2.75mm dpns
Cast on: 64 stitches
Cuff: 16 rounds K1P1 rib (as on the Hermione’s Everyday Socks, but fewer rounds)
Leg: 54 rounds
Heel: Priscilla Wilde’s No Mess No Fuss Short Row Heel, worked over half the total stitches (32) with 12 central stitches and 10 stitches on each side.
Work short rows back and forth, slipping the first stitch purlwise at the start of each row, leaving an additional stitch at the end of each row with a gap where the work is turned. Once there are 10 stitches on each side of the central 12 stitches, work lengthening rows, knitting or purling 'across the gap' using K2tog, then make a stitch knitwise on the RS rows, P2tog and make a stitch purlwise on the WS rows, then turning the work and slipping the made stitch purlwise to start the next row, until all the side stitches have been worked back in, and not forgetting to make stitches after the last K2tog and P2tog to end up with 32 stitches back on the heel needle.
Foot: 60 rounds
Toe: Rounder toe with a side 'band'. Decrease rows 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16 and then every row from 17 onwards, (or for fewer cast on stitches, 1, 4, 7, 9, 11, 13, onwards, depending on how long or round you want your toe to be) knitting the first and last stitches and working SSK on the second and third stitches, K2tog on the penultimate 2 stitches of the instep/top of the toe and sole/under toes.
When only 10 stitches are left on the heel needle, work all of the instep stitches (with the last decreases) onto a single needle and use Kitchener stitch to close the toe.

I even managed to knit a matched pair!

Verdict:

• K1P1 rib looks smart, but I think I like K2P2 rib better for the cuff. I used to do 12 rounds only (1"/2.5 cm) but think the deeper 16 rounds looks better.
• The no mess etc short row heel is certainly faster than wrapping or lifting or whatever other technique to try to tighten and gap-close short row heels, but I still find the resulting triangular heel doesn't fit me so well (although it will be fine for anyone who doesn't have big round heels like mine!) German short rows seem to give a better finish, but I prefer Cat Bordhi’s Sweet Tomato Heel, which seems to give the best finish and shape of all of them.
• I've decided I like this rounder toe better then the one I was previously working, so I'll put this on my socks from now on, but I'm not sure about the side 'band' formed by working the decreases 'one stitch in'. I wonder if it makes a difference in terms of wear.
• I arranged the yarn start for the second sock to knit a matching pair, but a variation in the yarn meant that the second toe was a little different. Best laid plans, eh?

Beautiful Dawns

Isn't it strange how some people are naturally morning people, 'Larks', at their best in the morning, and some, like me, are 'Owls'? The author I'm working with commented on the time of night I was sending emails, and I tend to get emails from him in the early morning. Another friend of mine is a Lark too - she's dead on her feet after a late dance class or rehearsal, just when I'm still wide awake (if feeling a little tired from dancing).

There has been some research done on this, and it seems our circadian rhythms or body clock settings are due, at least in part, to our genes. I'm not sure who else in my family is an Owl; perhaps I've inherited it from one or more of my grandparents!

For the past month or more, my sleep patterns have been all over the place. I seem to get a surge of energy after midnight, and have sometimes stayed up editing into the wee small hours, to be harangued to bed by the cats just before dawn. So, while I would normally not get up early, I often see dawns 'from the other side' in summer.

Still, my ability to sleep during the daylight and not feel sleepy when it gets dark hints that there is something up with my melatonin production. Although that's not healthy, I don't feel too concerned, as I know that I'll be so tired after (and possibly even leading up to) the Cardigan Belly Dance Festival and Joon Dance Summer School that I'll probably go to bed earlier and get a lot more sleep to rest and repair the body.

In the meantime, here are a couple of photos of lovely summer dawns.

8th July, looking north. The Cordyline australis (Cabbage Palm), silhouetted in the pre-dawn light, is in next-door's garden - it flowered beautifully this year. Mist lies in the Cleddau valley east of Haverfordwest like a blue lake. The red lights just visible left of centre are from the mast at Woodstock. The hills on the skyline are the Preselis, including their highest peak, Foel Cwm Cerwyn.

18th July, zoomed in a bit to the north-east. The sun was still below the horizon, but was already lighting the clouds from below. The horses munch away at the grass, seemingly oblivious to the glorious colours around them!

Belly Dance Costume on a Budget

It was with a deepening sense of gloom that I watched the coverage of the Autumn Statement. The forecast is that low and middle income 'households' who are the JAMs - a nice new acronym, the 'Just About Managing' - will find themselves worse off as a combination of inflation and welfare cuts take hold.

When you are just about managing (and especially when you are actually not managing but determined to have some belly dance space-time), it can be really difficult to justify money spent on costume for a performance, especially if your time and money is so short that this may be once a year. The temptation is to go for something cheap, preferably something which will do double duty as everyday clothing, perhaps something you already have in your wardrobe. This can be really difficult; costume should ideally look like costume. There are few instances where you can get away with everyday wear, unless your everyday wear is somewhat bohemian and full of rich fabrics, colours, textures and bling! So, bearing in mind that I'm considering amateur performances in relatively 'safe' spaces, such as local haflas, here are some tips on what you might look for, what you might get away with, and how not to waste your money.

First, bear in mind that your costume should:

• Suit the dance style. Think about the dance - is it more cabaret or folkloric? A distinct style, or fusion? You might get away with jeans and a T shirt for Shaabi, or summer skirts for something folky or fusion, but not for something more classical.
• Fit you. Not so loose that the movements can't be seen or that it slips around or down, not so tight that it looks like you might spill out or it rides up, not so long that you trip over it, nor too short.
• Flatter you. Maximise your assets, minimise your faults, cover up anything distracting, such as large, scarred tummies and bingo wings, and look as though you are wearing the costume and not the other way around.
• Provide some visual interest and look like a unified group. I'm all for individuality, but if everyone just wears what they have or like, you can end up with every style of costume in every colour (which is what happened for the Imago dancers' first show piece. Ah well, it's all experience!). Costumes don't have to be identical, but should have some sort of richness, either in their decoration or the blend of colours and perhaps textures or fabrics, and if not all the same, then a limited set of styles can bring a group look together.)

The first thing is to assess what you have, or can borrow.

• Skirts. A skirt should be long and move nicely. Long means down to your ankles, or onto the instep of your foot, rather than calf length. Try turning in the skirt and twisting your hips to see how it moves. Ideally, you should have a skirt with a hem at least 3-4 metres long. A circular skirt will have a hem 6-7 metres long. A half circle skirt with godets (triangular inserts) can also work well. Tiered skirts used for folkloric or tribal style dance often have hems at least 9.5 metres long, roughly equivalent to a circle and a half, but if the top tier is too long, onto the thigh, it may not move well. This is often the case with tiered 'broomstick' skirts sold as summer skirts, which often do not have enough fabric gathered into the tiers to move well.
• Tops. A good basic is a close-fitting vest top or strappy camisole of fine cotton, poly-cotton, polyester or viscose jersey. This can be paired with a cropped-length tie-top of some sort, in a matching or toning colour. Make sure the tie top is big enough so that it does not ride up over the bust, and you can get a sleeker look with a top which has ties long enough to cross in front and tie at the back. Any T shirt should be close-fitting, with a deep and preferably decorated neckline. The only time I would suggest something 'blousy' would be a folk top with a gathered neckline, full sleeves and some embroidery.
• Trousers. I've seen a lot of trousers described as 'harem pants' recently, but they are really just pull-on trousers with pleating at the waist and a narrow ankle. These can work if they are made in a drapey fabric, otherwise choose some made from a decorative fabric (and more of it!), with elastic at the ankles (and long enough to cover the ankle bone). For tribal fusion, flared jazz pants, perhaps with a small over-skirt, can work well.
• Dresses. Depending on the cut and decoration, an evening gown could double as a cabaret dress. (And a dress galabeya could double as an evening gown.) A simple column or A-line summer dress with a beaded neckline might also work when worn with a matching coin belt.

Now you're in a better position to consider what you need.

Do:

• Think ahead; the earlier you start to plan and put a costume together, the better.
• Be prepared to spend some money at some point. Start a costume fund. It is possible to get a dress galabeya, which could see you through several styles of dance, for around £50.00 (although the way the currency is going at the moment, not for very much longer!).
• Be prepared to have more than one costume if you are going to continue!
• Know your size/measurements and look carefully at descriptions and pictures when buying online.
• Resist buying the first thing which catches your eye because it's cheap and looks like it will do.
• Support your local dance events and buy from souk/bazaar vendors. You get to handle costumes and try them on, and you are often effectively supporting small businesses. If the vendor travels to Cairo (for example), have a chat about the sort of thing you're looking for, what you can afford, size and colour preferences.
• Have a look at internet sites selling professional costumes. With the change in exchange rates, these are far more expensive now, but you might get lucky with a sale, and it will give you ideas.
• Keep an eye on eBay, there are bargains to be had, especially if you happen to be the right size for another dancer's second hand, quality costumes.
• Keep an eye open in charity shops for evening dresses, skirts and tops which could be adapted, and outrageous bling in terms of jewellery, providing it suits the costume you are putting together.
• Reality check. If you sew or can have someone sew for you, re-purposing clothing can work out cheaper, but there is a lot of work in a belly dance costume and you may spend more on the beads and sequins than you'd planned. Have an idea of the cost of fabrics per metre and how much you would need to make a garment from scratch, which is sometimes quicker than making alterations. You might be able to buy a lot of sequins more cheaply than salvaging them off another charity garment. Blingy jewellery which could be used as costume decoration needs either to be removable or in a mount which won't rust.
• Remember that even professional quality costumes often need some adjustment to fit your unique body!

Avoid:

• Harem pants, skirts or dresses with metal coins on as part of the decoration; they will be difficult to wash.
• Costumes which claim to be 'professional' but do not look like anything which, say, Eman or Hoda Zaki, Hanan or Bella would produce.
• Anything marked as one size fits all, unless it really can fit you.
• Anything which seems to have an identity crisis. A quick look through eBay this evening resulted in a lot of yoga, Bollywood and ballroom costumes tagged as belly dance.
• Anything which looks like lingerie/underwear. This includes bras with a decorated front, but still with the stretch straps at the back. (You might get away with it peeping out the front of a tie-top or deep-fronted galabeya, but don't spend money on one unless you are sure it will fit!)

Really Don't:

• Go for Carnival, Halloween or other dress-up costumes - they're not usually designed to be danced in. Yes, that includes that set of  'endless wave' style harem pants with small clusters of beads on the points, halter top and belt smothered in coins and sequins, all for under £18.00. What a bargain, so difficult to resist, even when you suspect that the halter top will not fit (as they even point out that it won't provide full coverage for a B or C cup bust). Shown on a tiny model, it looks lovely. I know someone who bought the pants, and the loosely woven chiffon tore under the weight of the bead clusters (not that they were heavy!) and kept on tearing, before she'd even started dancing. The same goes for cheap 'tourist tat' costumes, especially if the bra cups are shaped like cones or as two circles joined half-way up by a short strap. These often also have some sort of flower, target shape or a tassel on the nipple. Just don't go there.
• Start with accessories. However tempting it is because they are cheap, little elasticated wristlets with coins or a jingly ankle bracelet are the least of your needs and may not suit the style of the costume you're putting together. If anyone wants to buy these for you, encourage them to put a few quid into your costume fund instead!

Happy costume hunting!

Further reading:
You might want to look at a previous post when I was thinking about costuming a couple of years ago.
Shira's website is full of superb information, indispensable reading!

Season of Mists and Musings

It's the start of October already, and 'tis the season for dark evenings, finding the winter woolies and snuggling in front of the TV to watch Strictly Come Dancing! The Autumn Equinox came and went, and with it a review of my quarterly To Do list, which is as long as ever. Will I ever achieve my goals? The project to reclaim my sewing desk and sort out my sewing notions has been ongoing for a few months now - nearly there! But I'm still getting cross at the chaos, and particularly since there are items I still haven't found (and some bits which I unpacked before I had a place to put them, and now I can't find them again!)

Summer flew by in a whirl of belly dance festival, covering LIFT classes, summer school, gardening, planning classes and workshops for the Autumn term and an absence of beach time, because whenever I was up for it, the weather was not. Most of the time I seemed to be either dripping with sweat (having exercised/danced/gardened) or feeling a bit chilly.

There have been comments on Gardeners' Question Time and Gardener's World about it not being a very good summer, weather-wise (again!), which is some consolation - it's not just my imagination. There's a tub-trug in the garden which I haven't been using for weeding, instead leaving it to gather rain water so that every so often, I can dip plant pots or my watering can into it. It got down to a quarter full before it was topped up again, and is now brim-full. I've been loving the hour-long Gardener's World programmes, and shall miss them when they finish for the season.

The pink rose is definitely a keeper, just not where it's currently growing. The scent is better than I thought and it's growing strongly. It sends up shoots nearly as tall as I am, which bend over, and then new shoots 'break' from the stem in the style of some of the older roses. It's rather sprawly and would probably grow up and through another shrub. I'm still researching what it is, while wondering why that matters to me!

The Buddleia under the washing line obviously got its roots down this year and grew terrifically, in some places over two metres of growth in one year. This is without any feeding, so the soil must be quite fertile (everything in the garden soil grew quite lushly this year, must have been a bit of relative warmth and wet). Some of the flower spikes were roughly half a metre long! In mid to end August, the flowers were frequently covered in butterflies; beautiful fresh Large Whites, Small Tortoiseshells, Peacocks, Red Admirals, and Painted Ladies. I so enjoyed having a cuppa, sitting on the swing seat to watch them, or standing next to the flowers and listening to the butterfly wings as they fluttered around. Sheer joy!

The Buddleia made so much growth that it was summer brittle, with shoots breaking every time there was some wind. The last blow brought down one of the very large main branches; split at the base, and is now wilting drunkenly across the patio. I suspect the way it's been growing means that transplanting it may be difficult, but I'll probably pot it up for the winter just to get it out from under the line, as I really need to plant out the herb bed before it gets too cold and wet. Some of the marjoram, thyme and the fennel rotted off in their nice, free-draining pots this summer. I already have a bag of horticultural grit to work in, and some stone to top dress as well. While I've been digging it over, I keep coming across pockets of richer soil with pea gravel, presumably where things have been planted in the past.

The other thing blocking progress of the herb bed is the Crocosmia. I had seriously considered putting the whole lot on the compost heap, but a couple of friends said that they would like some plants of that and anything else that was going begging from the garden. Then, I saw it against the purple Buddleia, and the bees going in and out of the tubular flowers, and decided that some can go in the front garden.

The bit of digging I have done in both the front and back gardens has revealed stony clay soil, not the easiest thing to work with. I rather like doing a bit of digging (or perhaps it's weeding and turning over, considering that I have to use a fork!) and find I can manage an hour before really needing a sit-down. But that's when the soil's not horribly wet from rain in the preceding days. It makes me wonder how plants which like a nice root run, such as the roses, will cope. My plan to have raised beds for vegetables now seems like a necessity.

The mellow fruitfulness is a bit lacking. The young gooseberry plants were completely defoliated by sawfly larvae which I didn't notice until they had done their worst, as if they appeared one day and stripped the plants overnight. I've had some good courgettes, but many seem to have suffered from some kind of blossom-end rot and the ubiquitous slugs and snails. The aubergine had trouble flowering, because every time it grew one, its stem was bitten through by the marauding molluscs. The first few 'snack size' cucumbers were surprisingly good, since when the molluscs have devoured all the developing fruits. I didn't get any spinach or lettuces. Other gardening friends have commented on the apparently huge numbers of slugs this year. Something will have to be done! I've picked the French beans as they've been produced, but the plants weren't very bushy or floriferous. The outdoor tomatoes have had real trouble ripening and it looks like I'll have to pick the remainder (which is most of them!) while green and see if they'll ripen indoors. At least the plants haven't succumbed to blight, and the ripe tomatoes I've had have been wonderful! Only a couple actually made it back into the kitchen! I'll have to look up the variety of the yellow cherry tomato, the flavour was superb.

I was awoken at dawn on 1st September by a skein of geese honking overhead. Misty mornings, shorter days, a new school term and fat Garden Spiders Araneus diademata crouching in the centres of their dewy webs; all signalling the change of season. There has been a noticeable drop in temperature in the past week, and today's east wind combined with no sunshine means the house is fully 5 degrees colder than it was. I'm wearing layers in an effort to delay putting the heating on.

The swallows have gone, of course. I was aware of them leaving for a while, feeding as they went. Each time I saw them, I wondered if  it was the last until they return next April. In fact, the last time I saw some was nearly a fortnight ago on 24th September (the latest I've ever seen any), silhouetted against grey clouds and blown sideways if they dared to deviate from their course in the hope of catching an insect. Making wishes for their safety, I watched them as they flew east over the fields, until the black specks merged with the sky .

The Hawthorns are loaded with berries. I've heard several people speculating that the berry load means that it will be a hard winter. In the past few weeks, there was a day when the media (including the BBC) was full of headlines stating that it was the 'hottest day of the year' (and there have been a few very hot days this year). Well, it might have been for London and the home counties, but it was pretty miserable, overcast and a little chilly here. I went out and drove back in heavy rain, so I stayed in the car, listening to the radio for a few minutes, (complete with swearing at the 5.00 pm news headlines 'It's the hottest day of the year!'), waiting for the downpour to ease off  rather than get drenched in the few metres between car and front door. The water was coming off next-door's roof in a sheet. I scurried into the house and up to the office, to find friends in the West Midlands and north west England posting photos of flash flooding and talking about dramatic thunder and lightning.

Here are some garden highlights from mid August to early September, as a reminder of the warmth and colour; Scented Geranium flower, Crocosmia, Red Admiral on Buddleia (the colour difference on the wings is because one is a little back-lit), Evening Primrose, a cluster of at least 35 buds and flowers on the pink rose mentioned above, Small Tortoiseshells on the Buddleia, the Campanula posharskyana flowering again (I cut it back after its first flush of flowers to tidy it up), a fuzzy buzzy bumble bee in a Campanula flower, and one of the long Buddleia flower spikes against a blue sky while a flock of Jackdaws swirled around.

Bye-bye Summer! Welcome, Autumn!

The Windmills of Your Mind

I love the effects of changing light, colours and patterns, whether it's looking at a blue sky through a canopy of gently moving leaves, the sparkle of sunlight on moving water, or even the glitter of sequins and beads on a dancer's costume. In the ongoing effort to get my new office/workroom sorted out, I'm revamping a stack of nesting quadrant boxes by covering them in self-adhesive holographic foil, which will create some bright and beautiful storage on the back corner of my sewing desk. The downside may be that I just sit and gaze at them, mesmerised by the shifting spectra (honestly, I can give it up any time I want to ...). At least my sewing notions will be neatly stored and free from dust and cat hair!

During unpacking, I found a kaleidoscope which I bought to entertain the step-children (well, that was my excuse, although it's not a patch on the tin one I had when I was young. I don't know what happened to that one, probably broken and binned long ago!) There is something fascinating in the way the mirrors create different patterns, no two ever the same. Now I've got a digital kaleidoscope, and can create endless patterns from some of my photos, but the key is finding the right original photo. The kaleidoscopic images from some photos are completely uninteresting or way too messy, while others create such nice patterns that it's difficult to choose. I am quite fascinated by the images and play with them until I feel I've found the right one.

A few years ago, I started creating images for sale on various print-on-demand sites such as RedBubble and Zazzle, but was dithering over whether they were good enough, the sort of images I wanted to create, how to achieve that and various related technical issues. Plus, some of the artwork on these sites is totally awesome, would anyone look at mine? But, to my amazement, a few lovely people have bought items using my images! I realised that it is hopeless comparing yourself to other artists, and trying to second-guess what people will want to look at or buy. In publishing our art, we're creating diversity and abundance, something for everyone.

Recently, I was chatting to my artist friend Heidi Norman about my former lack of confidence in my work, and my renewed drive to create the sets of images I have planned. Heidi, knowing that I tend to be a perfectionist and a powerhouse of creative ideas herself, encouraged more of a 'just do it' attitude. After all, I have quite a lot of digital images to play with. I've also started to unpack the old photo albums (and umpteen packs of prints which hadn't made it into the albums at the time of packing up a previous life!)

So I’ve rebooted myself, and have been busy creating and loading new images, especially digital art to add to the Belly Dance collection and the Kaleidoscope Mandala Art for Celtic Festivals, Chakras, Starflakes (is it a snowflake or a star, or both?) and a growing collection of bits and pieces involving things like flowers, butterflies, lights and concepts of the natural world such as the seasons and elements.

I refer to them as Kaleidoscope Mandalas, as they aren't traditional mandalas of symbolic images in a geometric shape, but the kaleidoscopic mirroring creates repeated patterns which act like a mandala, as a focus for attention and aid to meditation. As you look, your eyes are drawn around the outer circles of the pattern and into the centre. As your whirling thoughts slow down and start to freewheel, your mind picks out different shapes; faces, crowns, hearts, butterflies, dragonflies, aliens, robots, birds, dancing figures with upraised arms, goddesses, Buddhas, scarab beetles, angels, temples, petals, arrows, feathers, flames.

Apparently, the Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Jung believed the urge to make mandalas emerged at times of intense personal growth and change. This sounds about right to me. I haven't felt such a strong drive to create in years, and it certainly has been a year of changes for me.

It takes some time to upload new work, create and edit various product offerings, but you can now find increasing amounts of my work on the following sites:

RedBubble    http://www.redbubble.com/people/imagomoth
Zazzle           http://www.zazzle.co.uk/dancingmoth*
DeviantArt    http://dancingmoth.deviantart.com/
Cafépress    http://www.cafepress.co.uk/profile/dancingmoth

Please feel free to treat yourself and make me a few pennies in commissions! ;)

Depending on your browser and plugins, you may be able to see my Zazzle panel in the right-hand column, scrolling through various products and images. You can also find Heidi on RedBubble and her Spanglefish website. She is also translating some of her designs for clothing through Vida, well worth a look (or better still, a pre-order!).

Current earworm: The Windmills of Your Mind (but the Kaleidoscope Mandalas are something of an antidote to the restless, troubling thoughts!)

A Good Yarn?

I love Ravelry (oh, did I mention that already?), and one of the things I love about it is the wealth of experience it contains.  I'm starting to learn (the hard way) that I should look at yarn reviews and project comments. Comments on yarns can be very revealing. I sincerely hope that the yarn producers read them and act accordingly. Free, relatively unbiased feedback, for which you don't have to do market research? These reviews are a gift!

A few months ago, I was browsing through the DK and Aran weight yarns hoping to find some which I can afford and don't have too many drawbacks, in order to do a couple of cabled sweaters, major projects after all of last year's socks!

Naturally, the yarn brand's own description is unlikely to reveal some of the downsides of a yarn and you may need to read between the lines of the description. Wonderful for felt? It probably felts very easily. Superwash wool? Is it, though? Plenty of people have experience which may say otherwise, even when they carefully follow the care instructions. Good stitch definition - does it keep it after washing?

On the other hand, many of the yarns have quite high star ratings from users and have been used in hundreds or thousands of projects, but have relatively few pages of users' comments, which tend to reveal the real issues. I found myself wondering what that was about. Of course, it's easier just to click the rating than put your thoughts together and write a comment.  It could be that users don't think to go back to comment once they've discovered issues such as the dye running, or growing after washing. Or perhaps when they do, it's all been said already and they don't think they can add anything, so they don't. Yarn comments are often included in project comments.

It's tempting to rely on the old maxim that you get what you pay for, but this isn't necessarily true. I saw a review for a mid-range to expensive yarn from a textile student who was creating a garment as an examination piece, and finding terrible problems with the yarn fuzzing and pilling, almost starting to friction felt, during knitting. She contacted the brand's helpline and it turned out they knew about the issues, and advised that she try to knit holding it well away from herself and with the stitches separated! (For the non-knitting reader, this is not a practical solution!) The yarn has since been discontinued.

Yarn quality is important. If you were spinning and dyeing the yarn yourself, you might be happy that you've produced something and take a relaxed view that 'it is what it is'. With experience, you may then improve the quality of your handspun and dyed yarn. We expect yarn producers to have that experience already and to manage quality issues as part of the production. Of course, commercially manufactured yarns and the resulting items, such as sweaters, may have quality problems too, such as the dye crocking or running and ruining the Fairisle pattern of the jumper and the blouse you were wearing under it, or a 'Superwash' sweater which shrinks and felts on the first wash. If that happens, you take it back to the shop. If the same thing happens after you've shelled out your hard-earned cash for yarn and spent many hours creating your knitwear, then all you can do is complain to the yarn producer, comment on Ravelry to warn others, and have a cup of tea while you curse and sob your heart out in anger and frustration over the wasted money, time and effort.

'Known' Characteristics
Some characteristics may be normal for certain yarns, but an unacceptable feature and a sign of poor quality in others.  For example, mohair yarns are naturally hairy and grippy, so stitches are hard to unravel and textured stitches will be hard to see. Apparently, alpaca is known for showing up uneven stitches, and paradoxically having poor stitch definition. Merino often grows on washing and pills when knitted too loosely. Singles (yarns which aren't plied, that is, more than one yarn twisted together), at any weight, may pull apart or snap if your tension is too tight. Nylon can feel quite harsh. Tweed yarns contain neps. Thick and thin yarns are deliberately thick and thin.

I saw someone complain that her wool-rich jumper smelled of wet sheep when washed! I suppose the smell of wet sheep isn't for everyone, but I would be disappointed if my wool-rich garment didn't smell of wet sheep when I washed it! I also had a look for comments on a very popular acrylic yarn, to find that no-one had anything to say, good or bad, although it had a reasonably high rating. Perhaps it's because it is so completely as expected.

Yarn Texture
Sheddy, linty: Hairs or bits of yarn drop/fly off while knitting or wearing the garment, leaving you and the area where you've been sitting covered in bits
Fuzzy: Some apparently smooth yarns develop a fuzzy 'halo' or 'haze', either after washing, or while they are being knitted. This can be a precursor to pilling and may make a garment look more worn or old than it is. Fuzzy, hairy yarns don't make for good stitch definition.
Grippy, sticky: Sticks to itself, may also stick to the needles (depending on their material - plastic and wood can have issues), difficult to frog/unravel or tink/correct stitches. This can work for you if, say, you are an accurate knitter creating a sweater with steeked armholes.
Pilling is a very common issue. It happens when short, loose fibre ends on the surface of the fabric form small bobbles. Wool, cotton, acrylic, polyester and nylon tend to pill the most, with knitted fabrics pilling more than woven ones and loosely knitted fabrics more than tightly knitted. If you are working with a yarn which is known to pill badly, it's worth working out gauge and size to allow you to work on smaller needles. Wool pills tend to break away from the fabric and fall off, but pills on synthetics will need to be shaved off to keep the garment looking good.
Friction felting: Some yarns may start to felt while they are being worked, and the soles of socks may felt from the friction of being worn. 
Splitty: Especially in loosely plied yarns, where the plies unravel enough that you leave part of a stitch behind while knitting. If you pick up and adjust the leftover loop and it settles back with the other plies, no problem. However, some splitty yarns are unforgiving and the loop cannot be persuaded to rejoin the main yarn, leaving a snag. If you are working with a splitty yarn, sometimes it's worth changing your needles for ones which are less sharply pointed, and working more carefully.
Snaggy: Also in loosely plied yarns, or where two yarn types are plied together, such as a metallic thread or a binder thread with sequins. One of the yarn types may catch on things more than the other, leaving snags and pulls, which very quickly make the item look old and tatty.
Coarse, harsh, wiry, crisp, stiff:  Different colours of the same yarn may be coarser than others, due to the way that the dyes react with the fibres. Depending on the reason, this is sometimes resolved by washing and a rinse with fabric conditioner. If there appear to be no problems with the yarn/fabric growing on washing, pilling and snagging, it might be possible to work at a looser tension. However, very coarse yarns can be a literal pain to work with. I used to crochet doormats from recycled baler twine and have yet to find anything coarser than that!
Itchy, scratchy: This generally depends on how sensitive you are to the fibre types in a yarn. It's also a good idea to wash new garments to remove any lingering factory finish which may cause irritation. Even so, some yarns seem to be itchier than others. The scratchiest thing I have is a shop-bought shrug/wrap cardigan, made from a chunky-weight synthetic ribbon yarn plied with a sequinned thread binder. The sequins stick in at all angles - definitely not as comfortable as it looks.

Dye problems
Excess dye
Colour runs in wash:  There is often a bit of excess dye when it comes to natural fibres, either pure or blends, so always wash dark and saturated colours on their own, at least for the first time. You can try a dye catcher sheet or colour run remover for unexpected disasters, but it's worth knowing if the colour runs and taking steps to fix it as repeated running can lead to fading.
Crocking is a worse problem, because the dye starts to come off the yarn with friction or the smallest amount of moisture. You can often pick this up while knitting, as you realise your fingers and even the needles are a picking up the colour where you tension the yarn or hold the fabric.This also has the potential to ruin your clothes.
If you don't want to or can't return the yarn, you can try fixing the dye.
For cotton, linen and viscose, soak the yarn (you need to unwind it into skeins/hanks first) or the finished item in water in which salt has been dissolved (weigh your item dry first and use its weight in salt, with easily enough water to submerge the yarn). Use white vinegar in water for wools and silks (protein fibres). It's difficult to give proportions. I've seen advice which varies between a 'glug' and a cupful per bowl or (stainless steel) pot. It may be worth treating it as if you are dyeing the yarn; here's a good article from Knitty.
Having soaked the yarn, wash separately to try to get rid of any excess dye before knitting the yarn up (or wearing, if it's a piece which has already been knitted). Be careful of wearing the piece with other items of clothing which will show any transfer.
Colour fading: It's no accident that 'vintage' fabrics look slightly bleached or faded, with muted colours. Exposure to UV light (and oxygen) causes most dyes to fade, (some, such as reactive dyes on cotton, linen and viscose, faster than others). By the time the fading has happened, there's nothing you can do about it. So move that richly coloured cushion out of the sun, and don't place or hang items to dry in bright sunlight.
Unexpected colour variation within a ball: If it's a solid colour, this usually indicates something was wrong during the dyeing process. If it's a kettle dyed or hand painted yarn, then it's likely that the dye didn't penetrate a section of the yarn. Some self-striping or self-patterning yarns have knots (or, if you're lucky, splices) with abrupt colour changes either side of the knot or splice.
Colour variation within a dye lot: You don't expect it, but you do see it. Not good, yarn producers, not good at all! The best fix  I've seen, from someone who couldn't get a solution through their yarn supplier, was to buy more and use the variation in shades to create a subtle Fairisle pattern.

Spinning, plying and winding issues
You wouldn't think this would be a problem with commercially-produced yarns, but it reflects poor quality control.

The fibre may not have been cleaned very well, so that there are still bits of vegetable matter (VM) in the yarn. I've also found bits of plastic and nylon in some cheap yarn, and unwanted neps (small lumps of short fibres, sometimes in a different colour - normal in a tweed yarn, but a bit annoying in a fine sock yarn!)

An uneven spin/ply can lead to variations in the yarn weight, so that it is (unintentionally) thick and thin and there may be unplied sections in a plied yarn. Alternatively, the yarn may be spun (overspun) or plied so tightly that yarn twists into loops and tangles.

Overspun yarns and thin sections may result in breaks or yarn ends within the ball . Where these are found, and presumably also where thin, tangled, frayed or stained sections are found in quality control, the ends may be knotted together so that you get knots in the ball. I've seen a couple of comments to the effect that a couple of knots in a 100g ball is pretty much industry-standard for acceptable quality, so if you get a ball without knots, you're lucky. That said, most of the balls of yarn I've knitted so far have not had knots, but my experience isn't so very extensive!

I've seen some reviews of mixed-fibre recycled yarns, especially those containing silk, where the yarn pulls apart quite easily. I'm all for reusing rags, but some of these yarns seem quite expensive to me, so I would definitely read the reviews before buying!

The yardage/metrage is often stated as a rough guide, but you would expect the ball weight to be accurate. However, it can be out by as much as 10% (although it's rarely over; I've had quite a few 100g balls which have been 98g). I've also seen a review for a yarn stating that the length was incorrect - I can't imagine actually measuring a whole ball or skein of yarn, but it strikes me that you would have to keep the yarn at a constant tension to get an accurate result.

And last, but not least, loosely wound balls which fall apart, leaving a tangled heap of yarn.Try not to pull, as it might knot itself tighter. And keep away from playful cats!

Washability
During processing and winding into skeins, balls or cones, the yarn fibres may be stretched, compacted or have some residual oil or finish, so that the yarn can feel quite different after its first wash.
Growing, stretching is where the yarn stretches and relaxes. Especially a problem for loosely knitted, heavy items. If the maker's suggested gauge seems tight and the yarn is known to grow on washing, go for the tighter gauge.
Shrinking is a common problem with wool.
Blooming is where the yarn seems to swell or puff a little and have a slight halo after washing, and the fabric seems to get a little wider and shorter. It's not really a problem, as the fabric often feels and looks softer, although you may need to pull the garment back into shape or re-block and you may loose stitch definition. Finely crimped, downy fibres (e.g. merino, lambswool) often bloom when washed and dried the first time and woollen-spun more than worsted-spun yarn.
Felting in wash. If you want to felt, use hot water, rub and wring the garment to your heart's content and rinse in water at different temperatures. It should be enough that if you don't want felt, use cool-lukewarm water for both washing and rinsing, and handle the garment carefully, avoiding rubbing and friction. Unfortunately, some yarns felt (and shrink) regardless of how careful you are when washing them. And I would like to know why.

Other issues to look for are stitch definition (possibly related to how crisp or soft a yarn is) and how well the yarn/item holds its shape after blocking (heavy, soft, loosely knit items may not hold their shape).

Finally, the same yarn may change in quality or characteristics over time, maybe because the producer has made changes, so it is worth giving and reading recent feedback, as well as older comments.

There are fixes for some of the quality issues, but you may not think to do it, and why should you, when you've just paid for a yarn which you expect to be of reasonable quality?  This is where creating a swatch can be so useful and important. Not only do you check your gauge (number of stitches and rows over 10 cm/4"), but you can wash it to check for dye loss, dry it and block it to check for growth/shrinkage, felting, and other quality issues, and make notes for posterity in your design book and on Ravelry, so others can benefit from your research! If you're planning a very large project, you might want to buy only a test ball before buying all the yarn you need (in the same dye lot, of course!).

After I'd written this, I belatedly wondered what else was out there about yarn quality.  I found this post by knittingharpy, who strangely didn't mention Ravelry but pointed to other sources of information on the Knitter's Review and on WiseNeedle. The latter has been taken down, having become uneconomic in the face of competition from Ravelry. It contained reviews since 1995, and it's probably a vain hope that the information has somehow found its way onto Ravelry. The owner, String or Nothing, has a good reference section.

Christmas Socks

Oooh, my freezing toes! I spent the solstice planning a workshop on the use of the feet and floor in dance, and it made me start to think about Norwegian-style stranded colourwork socks to lounge about in. I found several designs by Drops, but decided to have a go at these using some of my acrylic DK stash, just to see how the yarn performed and to practise my stranding technique. Instead of the traditonal red and off-white shown on the pattern, I went for blue and cream.
Apart from the fun of the colourwork patterns, DK knits up so quickly compared to 4 ply! Once I got to the solid-colour foot, I was wizzing along and knitted a pair of socks in a couple of sessions. Unhappy with my sloppy stranding, as well as a noticeable 'jog' (discontinuity in the pattern) between rounds, I frogged my first attempt at the colourwork. Various YouTube videos provided guidance on stranding techniques and advice on how to avoid the jog. While my stranding was easy to tidy up, I'm still not jogless, although I've tried lifting the first stitch of the second row, tightening the last and leaving the first stitches loose, knitting the first stitch twice ... they might work with thick stripes, but I need to find out more and think about how to manage this with more intricate patterns. One piece of advice was just not to worry about it, on the basis that once you've pulled the stitches about to block the item or wear it, it will look a bit more even.

Even with tidier stranding, my tension tightens a bit over colourwork, so I went up a needle size with the decrease for the leg after the cuff, for ease. I tried these on once they were finished, and on my chunky ankles and legs, I think I would need to go up a needle size again.

Pattern and modifications summary:
Cast on 56 sts with blue on 4 x 3.75 mm dpns (14 sts/needle)
knit 1 round  blue
knit 1 round  cream
12 r k2,p2 rib in cream
Change to 3 x 4 mm needles for decrease round (k5, k2tog) 8 times, leaving 48 sts (16sts/needle)
knit 1 round in cream before working chart A.
Redistribute stitches (without working) by popping the last 3 from needle 1 and the first 3 from needle 3 onto needle 2,  to leave 22 on instep (needle 2) and a total of 26 for heel.
Knit needle 1 sts and turn to start the heel flap on a purl (WS) row.
13 rows heel flap
Heel decreases (square heel) worked well, neat and no holes. Knit across needle 1 and pick up 11, work instep, pick up 11.
Knit a round after the pick-up round, putting the last stitch of needle 1 and first of needle 3 onto needle 2 to get 24 sts on instep and count this as foot round 1
Start gusset decreases on the next round 2 and on rounds 4 and 6.
Foot total 40 rounds before working toe decreases, leaving a total of 8 sts for the gathered toe. (I’ve changed my mind about gathered toes - it looks very neat.) Foot length is just about 24 cm, so size 38/39.

Working on these socks reminded me that I was going to write a post comparing the various makes of acrylic DK I had used on the colour sampler blanket, because I noticed significant differences. So it was on these socks; the cream acrylic was Woolcraft New Fashion DK, a whole ball left over from the colour-play crochet blanket. It's quite thick for a DK and a little coarse and fuzzy. I'm not sure I would use it for socks again - the legs on these can almost stand up by themselves. The blue is Hayfield Bonus DK 'Sapphire', which is thinner and softer, and rather lovely because the colour isn't quite solid. Although the foot length is right for me, the ankle/leg width isn't, so I'll offer these for sale at my Dancing Feet Workshop.

'Maidenhair Fern' Socks

I ended up buying a circular 2.75 mm needle with a long cable so that I could start the two-at-a-time, toe-up, magic-loop technique socks and found a couple of instruction videos, first for JMCO from Knit Purl Hunter and another for Liat Gat's Limitless (long-tail) Cast On for two at a time, magic loop socks. I decided to go with the JMCO, since I learned how to do it on dpns and I like it better than a long-tail cast on (although I may use the latter if ever I get down to doing my legwarmers!). A few rows in, I started to wonder why magic loop is thought to be quicker than dpns. The idea is that there is less 'adjustment' of the yarn and needles, but I was finding getting the stitches from the cable back onto the needle to be an absolute pain, and using two balls of yarn, which needed to be kept on their respective sides, meant further fiddling about. After a couple more rows, I realised that the problem with remounting the stitches was that the joins between cable and needle tips weren't smooth.  It's a Pony fixed circular, and just not up to the job of sliding stitches back and forth over the joins. I frogged the few rows I'd done, and started to wonder about how to smooth the join while I cast on another pair of cuff-down socks, from a pattern called 'Maidenhair Fern'.

I didn't realise from the picture, but this is an interlocking leaves lace pattern and doesn't look much like maidenhair fern to me, but I love leaves so it's not really an issue. I picked up the Drops Fabel 'Forest Long Print' (#650) which is a self-striping yarn. I love the way it's made up of different colours plied together, although it is a bit splitty and I'm not sure about the bands of pale brown against the greens - the pattern would stand out more with a solid colour.

I usually need to cast on 72 on my usual 2.75 mm dpns in order to cope with my chunky legs and ankles, so increasing to 75 sts for the pattern repeats around the leg didn't seem outrageous (although I forgot about how stretchy lace patterns can be). I prefer ankle socks, so did 12 rounds K2, P2 rib for the cuff, followed by 40 rounds for the leg, which was two and a half pattern repeats, achieved by starting on row 9 of the pattern.

The heel was worked over 2/5 rather than half the stitches, due to the multiple of 15 sts needed to continue the pattern down the instep. Probably because I was working on my own gauge and larger needles, the suggested heel flap seemed long so I only did 31 rows and picked up 19 sts along each side of the flap (including the corners to eliminate holes).

The increase to 81 sts for the foot after the gusset decreases seemed very strange - why have a larger foot than leg/ankle circumference? I decided to continue the gusset decreases until there were 20 sts for the sole and 45 for the instep pattern, leaving a total of 65 sts for the remainder of the foot, which was plenty.

The foot was 64 rounds (4 pattern repeats) from the start of working in the round again after the heel decreases to the start of the toe decreases, with the gusset decreases happening over the first 40 rows.

The socks fit quite well, although I need a broader sole for my wide feet and don't really like the lace design wrapping around the sides. I think, if I were to do it again, I might tweak the leaf pattern in some way, with a narrower instep pattern and wider stocking stitch sole. The leaf pattern isn't so obvious when looking down from the wearer's point of view. Perhaps I should set up a mirror on the floor to photograph my socks!

Cable Entertainment

I had planned to start some toe-up, two-at-a-time, magic loop socks (to learn how!) but finding, as per the law of the stash, that I didn’t have the right circular needles, and unable to resist casting on for another pair of socks, (and generally loving cables) I went for the Candy Twist Cable Socks pattern on Ravelry. When I queued the pattern, I thought maybe I would need to buy a solid-coloured sock yarn in perhaps a turquoise (NOT pink!), but in the end decided to use the Texere Jura ‘Leather’ in my stash. I don’t know why it’s called ‘leather’ as it’s a lovely golden-green-brown, ticking all my boxes for colours which don’t know exactly what they are.

I planned a little knitting session on 12 October and looking at the pattern reminded me that I had queued a project for a cable needle holder. Out came the remnants of the old, cream Aran yarn and the cable needle holder was whipped up in no time at all. Such a good solution for holding the cable needle between rounds.


That reminded me about another queued project, an owl bookmark as a gift for a friend. Using a little of my stash DK and a couple of shirt buttons, unravelling a length of yarn into singles to use as thread to sew them on, it also took no time at all. I got a bit bored with the long section and despite slipping stitches as directed at the start of each row, I can’t get it to lie flat. I think it will need steam blocking before I wrap it up. No tassel - I think it looks better without.

Then I made a start on the first sock. The ‘candy twist’ cable is not very stretchy, so while the number of stitches seems a lot for the ankle, it’s right. The heel and toe both seem a little long and narrow, but the number of stitches as per pattern gives the correct size for my foot on 2.75 mm needles. The first sock was finished in a week. After that I was a bit too busy with other things to sit and knit, so the second sock wasn't finished until the end of the month.

They look a bit strange, lying there on the blanket, but it's only because the ribbed and cabled leg looks narrow compared to the stocking stitch foot, which hasn't been blocked.  It took me a while to work out why it was called a candy twist cable. Then I realised the design looks like an oval boiled sugar sweet in a twist of cellophane.

I'm finding the 'Jura' quite a coarse yarn. It's okay to wear, just feeling a little hard when I first put it on, especially the square heel. This 'leather' colour is a little softer than the 'pistachio' I used on the Estonian Crossroads socks.  Time will tell how well it washes and wears, and whether it will soften a bit (although the Estonian Crossroads socks have been washed a few times now and don't really feel any softer). I'm not sure I'll buy any more. The colours are lovely, but I was a little shocked to see that the 100g cones I bought for £3.99 each in June are now £6.50!

Soothing sunset

One of the joys of living down here is the opportunity to just take a trip or a detour to watch the sunset from a beach.

I'd been up to Cardigan to have some work done on the car (ach, stress and money!) and as I collected it, I realised it was going to be a lovely evening. Too lovely to go home straight away, so I took the road which would take me to Fishguard, without really thinking what I wanted to do. As I reached Dinas Cross, I realised the west-facing Pwllgwaelod* would be a lovely place to watch the sunset.

On a fine evening, I love the whole time between the golden hour, when the setting sun turns everything to gold and blue, and the dusk when it gets too dark to see. After the sun dips below the horizon, the 'blue hour' might include a lovely sunset of reds and oranges to contrast with the darkening sky, especially if there are clouds to pick up the colours. Or it might just colour the sky and sea gentle shades of greenish-yellow, coral, violet, and eventually a sky-blue-pink as the pink band of the Belt of Venus stretches along the darkening horizon. The same thing happens in reverse at dawn, from dark to sunrise. Being a night bird, I tend to catch dawns by staying up late rather than rising early, although the latter has been known too!

It turned out to be a lovely sunset. I sat on the sea wall and watched as the sun disappeared, the sky and reflecting sea took on various colours, changing and darkening. I could feel myself breathing more slowly, relaxing, my mind stretching out into space. Lights came on in the distance, and I realised that they were the lights of the station and ferry port at Goodwick.

Reluctantly, I brought myself back to a 'now' which demanded action, got up stiffly, tottered back to the car and drove home.


* It helps to remember that in Welsh, W is a vowel, pronounced as a short oo. LL is a soft sound created by pressing the end of your tongue to the palate just above and behind your front teeth and then breathing out through slightly parted teeth and lips. 'Wae' is pronounced like 'why'. Pooll-gwhy-lod. Bottom pool or cove.

The Last of the Current Knitting UFOs

A bag containing a jumper which I started, ooooh, years and years ago and only got a third of the way through, has been looking at me accusingly. It started life as a cardigan, but when it came to doing the front, I changed my mind. I remember that the number of stitches made the work seem interminable. I put it down to knit a sample cardigan for a wool shop, and never picked it up again. Decision time - frog or finish? On closer inspection, I found moth holes, so the decision was made for me.

I looked at my work, tutting at the uneven 1/1 rib stitches, as I slipped the work off the needles and started winding the yarn onto a niddy-noddy to create skeins,  It's a washable pure wool 4 ply in a sort of denim blue, but in some lights it looks greyer. Not a colour I would normally choose, so I guess I must have picked it deliberately to go with jeans, which I wore all the time back then.

A moth had got to one of the balls, too, so I wound the broken (chewed!) yarn off the ball.  I had only bought enough to do a sweater in size 38 and I have expanded somewhat over the years, so there isn't nearly enough to knit it up into a sweater for me unless I combine it with some other 4ply yarns and do a Fairisle. On the other hand, I'm a sock addict now, so the yarn could come in handy for socks, although it doesn't have any nylon to help it wear longer. Or perhaps I could do a shawl? Maybe I have enough yarn for both?

So, now I have several skeins of various weights of crimped yarn in a colour I'm not mad about. Somewhere, I have some acid dyes. I wonder if they're still okay, as it's a couple of years since I did any dyeing. I could have some fun playing with some colours!

As I was musing about all this, I realised that this was the last of the knitting UFOs.  For the first time in nearly 30 years, I now have nothing on the needles! It's not like I haven't plenty of other UFOs and projects in other crafts, but it feels a bit weird. How long will it be before I yield to the compulsion to start the next pair of socks?

Well, it won't be tonight. Time for bed! Good night, all.

Seven-Colour Socks Pattern Translation

These are the socks I wrote about in June. I was looking forward to wearing these socks to keep my toes and ankles warm between dance workshops, but so far have forgotten to take them with me, probably because it has been so warm. I am thinking of developing a pattern without the stranded colourwork and with a shorter leg and fewer colour rings, as they would make lovely lounge socks for dancers (and anyone, really).

Meanwhile, here's the pattern, translated from Norwegian into English.  My additions and comments are included [in square brackets]. You will need to refer to the original pattern charts on the Ull.no website for the colourwork (click on the hyperlink with the pdf symbol under the heading 'Last ned gratis'). I've included a list of the original colours at the bottom of this post, although you can choose your own colour combinations.

Rainbow Socks
Design: Borghild Kolas

Rainbow socks with many colour variations.
Sizes: 6/8 - 10/12 years - adult/women's
Yarn: Embla Hifa 3, 100% pure new wool, approx 201m per 100g
Fjell Sokkegarn (Mountain Sock Yarn) 3, 80% wool/20% nylon, approx 167m per 100g
Yarn pack contains enough yarn for two pairs of socks. [Ull.no offers yarn packs for these socks.]
Suggested needles: 4mm dpns
[Tension: 10 x 10 cm
Fjell Sokkegarn 3    22 sts. x 29 rows on 3.5 – 4 mm needles
Embla Hifa 3        20 sts. x 27 rows stocking stitch on 3.5 mm needles/20 sts. x 23 rows stocking stitch on 4 mm needles]

Yarn colour and quantity:
[I've included the suggested quantities, but I think they refer to the yarn supplied in the pack. Although acrylic is lighter than wool, my pair of socks only weighs 103g in total. See below for a list of the original colour variations. I used acrylic DK in the following colours:

50g   Colour 1  Camel
100g Colour 2  Dark Red
100g Colour 3  Burgundy
50g   Colour 4  Claret
50g   Colour 5  Copper
50g   Colour 6  Old Gold
100g Colour 7  Dark Brown

With colour 1, Cast on 40 - 44 - 48 sts, (10 - 11 - 12 sts left on each needle) on 4mm needles. [I cast on 56 sts for my chunky legs, 14 per needle, although the main thing which will restrict the stretch is how tightly you carry the yarn between stitches for the colourwork.]
Work 8 - 9 - 9 rounds stockinette.
[Change to colour 2.] Continue in pattern on chart 1.
[The cross pattern is worked over rounds 3-5 of 7 rounds in stockinette.  There is one stitch of background colour between the crosses (which are 3 up, 3 across). The Cross pattern is interspersed with 4-4-5 rounds of background colour in purl/reverse stockinette.
So the pattern proceeds by adding the next colour to do the cross pattern with that colour as background and the crosses in the previous colour, and then 5 rounds purl with the background colour, then adding the next colour and repeating until you have used 6 colours.]

When the chart is complete, work 7-8-9 rounds with colour 7.

Heel
"Parish Decrease" (or knit your usual heel) [This is a square heel]:
The heel is worked in the same colour as the ribbing (= the colour you have on the needles). Work back and forth over 20 - 22 - 24 stitches (10 - 11 - 12 on each needle) [or in my case, 28 sts, 14 per needle.] with a pattern as follows:
1st row (RS): Slip 1 Knit 1 rpt
2nd row (WS): Slip the first stitch and purl rest of the stitches.
Repeat these 2 rows, approx. 4 - 4.5 - 5cm

Continue the ‘parish decrease’ as follows: [to turn the heel]
RS: Slip 1 Knit 1 etc. the first of the two needles. Slip 1, K1, Slip 1 on the other needle (3 stitches), dec 1 stitch. [I thought I should have a wider heel, so did S1K1 twice on the second needle - 4 sts before decreasing using K2tog.]
Turn.
WS: Purl back and [then] 3 stitches from the next needle , dec 1 st . Turn. [For me, 4 sts on the second needle, P2tog decrease.]
Repeat this until you have decreased on both sides, when you have 4 stitches left on each needle (all knit). [The K2tog/P2tog decreases are worked 'across the gap', leaving a central heel section of 8 sts for the original pattern, 10 sts for my wider heel.]
Pick up stitches on both sides of the heel so that you again use four needles and knit around in stockinette.
Decrease in "curve" on the side (at each side of the ankle) so you have 10 - 11 - 12 sts on each needle (= total 40 - 44 - 48 sts), less if you want a narrower foot.
[This is where the original pattern assumes you know how to do all this. How many stitches you pick up depends on how many rows you did for the heel flap, plus a couple for the corners. I did 14 rows, so picked up 9 stitches on the first edge of the heel flap onto the same needle holding the heel stitches, knitted the instep stitches onto another 2 needles, picked up 9 sts on the other side of the heel flap and continued to work half the heel sts onto the last needle (Needle 4) so that the rounds started mid-sole. There were 16 sts on heel/sole needles and 14 on instep needles. I wanted to decrease to 12 sts on all needles and worked as follows:
N1 Knit until 3 sts remain, K2tog, K1
N2 K1, SSK, knit the rest on that needle
N3 Knit until 3 sts remain, K2tog, K1
N4 K1, SSK, knit the rest on that needle
Then knit a round without decreases.
Repeat this decrease row and plain round, until all needles have 12 sts.]

Change colour [to colour 2]
And knit 5-6-7 rounds stockinette.
Continue pattern from chart 2.
[Add colour 7 as background, 2 rounds in col 7, 1 round alternating sts of cols 7 and 2, 2 rounds col 7, 3 rounds with crosses pattern in col 2, 2 rounds col 7, 1 round alternating sts of cols 7 and 2, 2 rounds col 7.
Change to colour 4 and repeat the 7 round 'crosses' pattern, using colour 5 for the crosses.]

After completing the chart, continue the toe in colour 3
Work 4 - 6 - 8 rounds Stockinette or desired length (depending on how long you want feet).

Decrease for toes:
Round begins mid-sole of foot.
Needle 1: K until there are 3 sts left, knit 2 together, knit the last st
Needle 2: K1, SSK, knit the rest of the stitches on the needle
Needle 3: As needle 1.
Needle 4: As needle 2.
Knit a round without decreases.
Repeat these 2 rounds until you have approx. 8-10 stitches left.
Cut the thread and pull it through the stitches and sew/bind off. [I used a kitchener graft.]

Sew in all loose ends.
Knit second sock the same.

The original colour variations are as follows. The codes in brackets are the yarn types - Embla Hifa 3 are 4 figure codes starting with 6, the other codes refer to Fjell Sokkegarn:
Colours and quantities: 1/50g, 2/100g, 3/100g, 4/50g, 5/50g, 6/50g, 7/100g
Rainbow: Purple (Lilac) (6077), Purple (Mauve) (519), Cobalt Blue (518), Green (6024), Yellow (6069), Orange (6070), Red (505)
Mountain: Mottled light grey (6054), dark grey (130), medium grey (115), light grey (110), unbleached white (100),  Charcoal (6056), black (511)
Sun: Maize yellow (6002), cognac brown (525), dark red (513), Red (505), Orange (6070), Yellow (6069), Ochre (526)
Sea: Light blue (6081), Denim Blue (507), navy (506), turquoise (512), bleached white (504), Cobalt Blue (518), Cobalt blue/black (538)
Rose: Lilac pink (6044), Dark lilac pink (S524), deep pink (521), Purple (Mauve) (519), bleached white (504), grey-purple (523), Pinky-lilac (520)
Forest: ochre/black (536), light olive (529), olive/black (539), black (511), unbleached white (100), cognac brown (525), dark green (510)
Autumn: Purple-brown  (6099), Ochre (526), dark green (510),  light olive (529), dark brown (6010), dark terracotta (6503), cognac brown (525).

The Bling's The Thing

I'm terribly excited to have a performance group again, after a little lull. We were quite active a couple of years ago, and started to discuss troupe costumes.  Then most of the dancers disappeared from class due to pregnancy, illness, shift and other work changes, new love interests, etc.

I'm so proud of 'my' dancers, including a couple of ladies who have really only been dancing anything from a  few weeks to a  few months. Having done a beginner's choreography last term, this one to Nourhanne's Habibi Ya Eini is pretty cute (even if I say so myself) but not very easy. They are working so hard and they are up for the challenge, although nerves are starting to kick in as the show comes closer. It is part of the Imago ethos that performance is optional and open to all abilities. This is a hafla-style show, so it's a safe place to perform for the first time.

Preparing for a performance can be scary and for your first performance, a little bit terrifying. Apart from doubts about whether you can learn and rehearse the choreography in time for the performance, the other big question is, What Shall I Wear? This is always a tricky one for beginners and casual dancers, and especially problematic for anyone not under UK size 16 and/or with body issues such as scars, flabby bits you want to keep hidden, unusual proportions and feeling so self-conscious that you may want to dance with everyone else, but blend into the background so that no-one can see you, and would fight to be at the back. Oh yes, I have all those issues, except for the last two which I'm over now, unless I have to watch myself in a mirror or on video.

Another issue is cost. If you are slim (up to a UK size 14, max!) with perhaps only A-B cups, and happy to show some tummy then it's quite easy to get a cheap, basic, far-east import costume of georgette/chiffon circular skirt, belt and bra for under £40 excluding post and packing. There are some fun, colourful costume pieces, if you can fit them.  They are marketed as One Size (don't get me started ...). They are also marketed as 'professional' and although they can look good, you should expect to pay £250 to £450 for a truly 'professional' full costume. At Raqs Britannia a few years ago, I overheard a couple of other teachers discussing how they don't let their students perform until they are at least 'intermediate' (in their book, dancing for a couple of years, not the JWAAD intermediate standard) and only then if they are prepared to buy their own 'professional' costume in the troupe colours. Not that all dancers are intermediate (whatever that means!) after a couple of years, and all very well if it's for paid, professional bookings or stage shows, but overkill if we're talking the local festival or street carnival. There's more to dancing well and being professional than the costume. A beautiful costume will certainly help you to look and feel the part, but it's what you do and how you do it that really counts!

Then there is the question of how to approach costuming a troupe. If everyone wears the same thing, the troupe can look very smart and can also help the self-conscious to feel that they are blending in. On the other hand, if you don't feel the costume suits you, it can make you feel worse and you might not dance your best, either. I was in a troupe where the requirement was for all white and I felt like a belly dancing meringue, conspicuous and uncomfortable.

Most costume decisions are about style, colour and cost, so for troupe costumes, it's a matter of finding a combination that works for everyone.

Style should be appropriate for the type of dance and choreography.  Doing ATS in a sparkly galabeya looks and feels too strange; I know, because I have done it. It was a spur-of-the-moment thing, and next time I shall make sure I have a big skirt and choli in my costume case! However, you can think of  'style' in very broad terms, such as everyone in dresses/galabeyas, or in a skirt and top, or wearing one or two unifying pieces which are the same style, such as harem pants and a glitterdot tie top.

Colour can be a difficult call.  It's hard to find a single colour/shade which suits everyone and everyone has their favourites in which they feel happy. It wasn't until I was loading a couple of photos onto my website that I realised how much stage lighting can alter colour, so that it can become almost insignificant. I may have felt like a meringue in my white costume, but under stage lights it became changing pastel shades, light and ethereal.

I usually advise against black for stage costumes, because it's not necessarily as flattering as you'd think and you can disappear against a black backdrop or in dim lighting. It's often chosen by people who want to appear slimmer and not be noticeable against the backdrop but beware! Your audience may look at you more closely if you're difficult to see! That said, sometimes black is the only option.  I have seen a very effective use of various separates - skirt or pants with some sort of top plus a coin belt - all in black and silver. Still, the whole troupe need to be okay with the colour choice.  I tried on a black and silver cabaret dress and it made me feel as though I was going to dance at a funeral.

With a unifying style, a troupe could be in all different colours, or could select a contrasting or toning colour range. This has the advantage that dancers get a choice (e.g. pink or turquoise, or any shades of blue and green) and might be able to use pieces they already have, keeping costs to a minimum.

Photo Credit Kathryn Goddard, Capture This Moment Photography

Here's a shot of Imago Dancers performing a couple of years ago in Cardiff, in whatever we had or could lend each other of black and royal blue, with the dancer's choice of silver or gold, unified by our masks and white boas.

My first 'troupe' costume was a double layer skirt with a top which I'd used for a contemporary dance piece, years before. A couple of years later, I was due to dance in a show for Hossam and Serena Ramzy, when all the other dancers in the troupe backed out at less than a week's notice.  I had four days to select music, choreograph what would be my first solo, and put together a costume.

I made a panne velvet overdress and polysilk harem pants, and wore both a fringe belt and a coin belt.  It was comfortable, covered a multitude of sins and it's still something I wear for more casual events.

However, after a couple of haflas and other performances,  I wondered why I was still feeling much too self-conscious and realised that it was because I felt too plain. Yes, the textures were nice and I was wearing jewellery and a coin belt, but I felt like a sparrow amongst peacocks. Unless you are being seriously folkloric, it's possible that for a local hafla, there's no such thing as too much bling!

Many 'larger ladies' are told to avoid lycra and this may be true in a figure-hugging, day-to-day fashion sense. I believed it, and since many belly dance costumes use lycra, I wasn't sure what to do.  Then I found a galabeya by Hanan in my size and was encouraged to try it on.  As I came out of the changing area, the other ladies in the souk all went 'OOooooh!'. It clung to some bits of me and skimmed the rest, and the bead and sequin work around the neck with the sparkly lycra made me feel elegant and dripping with style. Also, it was very comfortable to move and dance in, and some leggings underneath would deal with my dislike of flashing my legs. (It's the black and gold galabeya I'm wearing in the troupe photo, above.)

Since then, I've become a fan of dance galabeyas, treating myself to a turquoise and gold Hanan sparkly when I saw one in my size, and made an exception to my own black and silver rules to bag a second-hand Assuit galabeya when one came up at a reasonable price on eBay. I'm now planning to make a few. How many galabeyas does a dancer need?

In the end, I am reluctant to dictate when it comes to costuming for casual dancers; it's the dancers' money, and they should have a choice, including borrowing costume or going with what they have.  However, I encourage the maximum use of sparkle. Whatever you wear, if you want to feel fabulous and sparkly instead of frumpy and self-conscious, then the bling's the thing!

Seven-Colour Socks

Back in February, I had an idea that an ideal thing for keeping the feet and toes warm between workshops (or even warm generally) would be some colourful socks.  I added a sock pattern to my Ravelry queue simply because it played with colours on springy-ring garter bands.  Although the original calls for lovely DK-weight wool and wool-nylon blend yarns, I could see a use for some of my acrylic DK stash. It also contains a simple pattern of crosses and since I've been cowardly avoiding colour-work, I thought it would also be an excellent introduction.

The snag? The pattern is in Norwegian. Like the Finnish pattern I picked up for my first pair of socks, Norwegian isn't one of my languages either. Not only that, but there was a lot of detail over the colour changes, and very few instructions relating to the knitting.  Definitely a pattern which assumes you know how to knit socks, without the need for fussy details such as which decrease to use, or how many stitches to pick up along the heel flap, or how and where to do gusset decreases!

As usual, the automatic translation through Google was somewhat garbled.  The heel section appeared to describe a standard-style heel flap and gusset, but with very scant detail.  I didn't really understand how the instructions for turning the heel worked, leaving me wondering whether I had translated it correctly.  I looked on Ravelry to see if anyone else had commented, but only a few had done the pattern and hadn't included much by way of project notes.  The type of heel was 'Sognefelling' - parish(?) decreasing, so I searched YouTube with 'Sognefelling hael strikken' (knit a 'sognefelling' heel) and was presented with one video ... which presented a method of knitting a heel which was like the 'simple all in one heel' I did a couple of pairs of socks ago, with a few differences, but not at all like the pattern.  I did a search on 'Sognefelling hael strikken' and found a Norwegian blog, from someone who had done this pattern.  She commented that the method of turning the heel was a new one for her, so of course she had to try it, but made no other detailed comment.

I had an offer of sending the translation to a native speaker to check it over. In the end, I decided the quickest way to stop obsessing over whether my translation was correct was to knit the heel part as a sample, to see how (and if) it worked.

It worked fine, creating quite a square heel rather than the diagonal line of decreases I was expecting. I picked out seven colours from my DK stash and went for it.  I also decided to have a go at the stranded colour-work, which I'm finding faster and easier than I thought, although I might need to work some more on my tension.  I also need to work a little on colour changes in the round.  Working with DK means that it seems to grow quite fast, and there are fewer rows on the heel flap, so not as many stitches to decrease for the gusset.

So far, so good.  I'll give more details of the yarn and tweaks when I've finished, along with the translation.

It's the wrong end of the year for snuggly socks.  On the other hand, the weather is still a little cool and changeable, hard to believe it's June already!