Ginger Knits UK

I've been busy over the last couple of weeks, WWKIPing, making tiny pigeons, taking p/hop to woolfest as well as tending to my allotment and knitting. I've got a day off today so will try and update the blog but I might just sit in the sun and knit. Maybe see you later....

So here she is, my mini me, my stitched self, my knitted id, ego and super-ego. I really like mini me and don't really want to part with her (I'm sure Freud would have something to say about that) but she must go to the Science Museum. She looks more like me from the back. I'll try and get a photo of me with mini me tomorrow before I head off to Woolfest and she heads off to Stitch London, braving the London postal system. Good luck mini me.

My mini me is coming along despite my appalling sewing skills. "I" will be dressed even if my fingers become pincushions trying but in the meantime I had lots of fun needle felting "my" hair. The colour is a bit darker than my own and pre hair cut mini me looks annoyingly like the ginger one from Girls Allowed. That is until I let the hair go wild. In real life I have short hair so I've had fun styling mini me and for the first time have sympathy for my hairdresser who has to struggle with my thick unruly tresses. I need to make a top, shoes and accessories, if I have time, then mini moi will be sent to her new home in the Science Museum .

Goodbye old Loop, my very local yarn shop... ... and Hello New Loop which is bigger but luckily a bit further away from my flat which will be good for my bank balance. I popped along to the opening this morning to find the new shop so heaving with knitters that it was hard to see the yarn downstairs. Upstairs was a lot calmer with a beautiful open room with a vintage sofa to relax on and space to browse and fondle yarn. I'll go back in a day or two when the knitscrum has died down and will have a good yarny rummage, though I'm at Woolfest with p/hop next weekend so will have to save some money for shopping then as there will be lots of independent yarn companies to add to my stash. Susan who owns Loop has a great eye for detail and while I couldn't see much today I did admire the carpet on the stairs... ...and the yarn in the shop front window. If you're not in London Loop have an online shop where you can browse without having to squeeze through other knitters. I hop...

My mini me now has limbs and a belly button. I'm tempted to add more "features" before I dress "me" but I must get on and make clothes, hair and facial features.

I'm feeling like Dr Frankenstein today as I'm knitting a mini me for the Stitch London and Science Museum collaboration. It's quite fun watching "me" take shape.

Due to my new upstairs neighbour playing music at 5:30am (why? WHY?) I arrived bleary eyed at the Race/Knit for life. I'm grumpy enough as it is after four hours sleep but seeing a sea of lurid pink t-shirts and hearing overly cheerful pop music didn't help, I'm not good at enforced joviality. And why pink? I know the Race for Life is a female only event (and I have my own views on that but anything that raises money for cancer research is good) but the mass of pink t-shirts was reminiscent of an enormous tumour. I was pleased to see that the rest of the Stitch London team ignored the pink thing too (unless they chose pink because it suits them - I do not have a problem with that). Anyway, enough of my grumpiness, after some much needed caffeine and an expensive fruit salad I was ready to go. We were knitting Batternburg cake squares for cushions which will go to Bart's Hospital. We somehow started off in the runners lane but managed to get to the back. I walked most of...

Over on my allotment blog I mentioned I wanted a hoe. I'm having a lucky week where things I need have materialised. Last night after the Stitch London WWKIP Knit Crawl I headed west to my friend's birthday/football watching party. They mentioned they had an old hoe left by the previous home owner which they didn't use. The hoe end was wrapped in a plastic bag and I took it home on the tube. It was the last tube of the night so was full of footie fans and tipsy people. I was sober as I knew I had to get up early today so I put the hoe between my knees and got my knitting out (yes,more sock knitting). While the knitting was uneventful two people on two separate occasions grabbed the hoe handle thinking it was the tube pole. I think the World Cup has imbued the nation with a light-heartedness so there were laughs all round added to by drunken blokes singing the choruses from 80's pop hits - badly. I wish I'd taken a photo but even a photo can't sum up how much fu...

Tomorrow is WWKIP day (World Wide Knit In Public)so I will be heading off to West London with the funny, talented and lovely Stitch London knitting group for their annual knit crawl . On Sunday I'm taking part in a Race for Life to raise some money for cancer research. I was planning to run the course but when I started training my knee injury from last year flared up and I was advised by my physio not to run til my hamstrings had healed. While they're just about back to normal I had to think of another race strategy. Stitch London came to the rescue as they are knitting their way around the course so I have joined their team. While I'm a fairly competent knitter and I can walk, combining the two is a little harder and I'm sure knitting for 5km will be a challenge. If you would like to sponsor me and the Stitch London team please visit my fund-raising page . Thank you very much. I'll be taking part in the race with the people I know who've had cancer in my thou...

I've been on holiday in Kenya for the last two weeks which is why this blog has been a little quiet. I did spy some fibre crafts while I was there which I'll try and write about once I get my holiday photos sorted but it was nice to come home to the news that socks are in this summer . Not that I particularly give a stuff about what the fashion world dictates but as you know I do love hand knit socks. This is just as well as before I went on holiday I signed up for a challenge of knitting 52 pairs of socks in one year. I'm trying to think of a way to combine this with raising money for p/hop but I'm also trying to work out a way of doing it while fitting in other knitting and staying sane. The world cup is coming up so that's lots of knitting time during games. I'm tempted to make some England socks. We'll see what happens.