Yarnbombing The Barber of Seville - A First for Lismore

Lismore's "Opera Lane" aka The New Way

Angela, Brian and Minnie

This June Bank Holiday weekend was marked by the staging of Rossini's The Barber of Seville by the Lismore Music Festival in Lismore Castles's salubrious setting. The Opera was staged outdoors, a risky venture in itself given our unpredictable climate and indeed it didn't disappoint as last  night's performance took place in a veritable deluge. Luckily they had the presence of  mind to erect a tent to protect the audience and hopefully the stage could be covered as well. The previous night was the dress rehearsal which I already blogged about in this post about the visit of our President Michael D. Higgins to the Castle, where we met him afterwards at a reception. 

A yarnbombed pole

In Angela's Window - Mary's knitted banner!

All roads lead from Lismore! 

The Tuesday Knitters from the Design Workshop, our self-styled Knitting Circle, decided a while ago to get into the whole yarnbombing movement, which seems to be a global phenomenon. As the name implies, items made from yarn either knitted or crocheted are bombed into public spaces to decorate street furniture, and it can be themed or random. We decided to mark the Opera weekend with yarnbombing on the theme of Barber poles - lots of red and white stripes along the lamposts of Lismore especially en route to the Castle from the town - our very own Opera Lane.

My Granny Squares pole

What makes Yarnbombing special is the surprise element - not for nothing is it also called Guerilla Knitting - so nobody outside the select members of the Knitting Circle morning and evening groups were told what all this frantic red and white knitting or crochet was about, and it was assumed we were knitting up the Cork colours, our rivals on the fields of sport, who are always pitched against the blue and white of Waterford. Alas no, it was much more than an homage to Cork, and by yesterday morning the town was blitzed. 

En route to the Castle Avenue

Like a duel of old, it was up at dawn for Angela of the Design Workshop and some other trusty members who were out in force with the lengths of knitting and crochet, cable ties, stepladders and darning needles.  Sadly I slept it out till 8:30 by which all the hard work was done and I went around taking photos feeling rather sheepishly guilty for not having been there - but Saturday mornings are sacrosanct and the alarm is silenced - I forgot to reset it.

My crochet stripes - concertina-ing!

My yarn bombs pre-deployment! 

So when I arrived on my bike Angela and fiance Brian and trusty dog Minnie (who is a prima donna star in her own right, with a whole range of greeting cards in her image) were breakfasting on the terrace of the Lismore House Hotel, and I was delighted to see the end result of the poles draped in Barber Pole stripes - some quirkier than others. Mine included a length of granny squares in alternating colours and they looked lovely on the pole, and it was great to see them on the corners of the Main Street too. 

The Barber's this way!

We have plans afoot for next weekend and the Immrama Festival of Travel Writing, so watch this space! Like Arnie, we'll  be  back - and it's gonna be fun. I hope you enjoy the photos of our venture into this brave new world of knitting and crochet! 

Lismore's First Sit'n'Knit - The Tuesday Knitters at the Farmers' Market

The Tuesday Knitters - on Saturday!

Today was the first Sit'n'Knit session of a number that may take place over the summer in the run-up to the inaugural exhibition of Knit One, Purl One planned by the Tuesday Knitters from the Design workshop run by Angela Nevin. The exhibition will take place in the off-site gallery of Lismore Castle Arts at St. Carthage's Hall in November 2012.

We have been meeting as a Knitting Circle since late 2010, shortly after the Design Workshop opened, and it is very pleasant to get together every Tuesday evening with fellow-knitters and crocheters, and occasionally I go to the morning session if I'm off, as it's not really an option for those of us working outside the home. As a result, a lot of the morning knitters are retired, and as I wrote before in this blog, some are retired nurses, which shows what a crafty crowd we are! Also that generation knitted regularly and it had none of the cachet that it has today, where it has become practically a celebrity must-do in some circles. I read in one of  my myriad knitting  books that Hollywood stars can now be seen knitting away in the downtime between takes on set, so that can't be bad! There is a children's knitting circle running on Tuesdays as an after-school club which attracts a group of enthusiastic early knitters - the future is safe in their nimble fingers!

Farmers' Market on Lismore Castle Avenue.

Anyway, recently we decided all our multiple and diverse talent should be shared with the wider world and with that end in view Angela hit on the great idea of an exhibition in November. We'll try to do some events in the meantime to shamelessly self-publicise, like getting involved in Knit-in-Public International Day on June 12th, and maybe some guerilla yarn-bombing activities. Of course  by their very nature they have to remain secret and surreptitious till the community awakens to an explosion of colour in their public spaces!

Knitting and cakes - note needle box- not whiskey!

Knitting away! 

The Sit'n'Knit yesterday was the second activity in the past week - Easter Monday saw some wonderfully clad ducks infiltrate and visit the charity Duck Derby in the Strand, Lismore's watering hole for generations of children and indeed where I learnt to swim with an old inner tube, in the shallow waters below the salmon weir waterfall. There was a salmon hatchery in Lismore back in the days of yore - my childhood - and the waterfall was integral to that as it had a sluice gate  nearby that diverted the water to the hatchery. Blackwater salmon were famed far and wide and indeed still are though for the chosen few who have salmon fishing licences. Luckily one of our friends is in a syndicate that fishes the Blackwater and we are always blessed with a couple of fresh caught delicious salmon every year.

The poster for our exhibition

The Duck Derby pretenders wore hats and scarves knitted by stalwarts of the knitting circles, especially Dairiona and some of the children's circle; there are numerous photos on Facebook, and even a videoclip which you can see on the Facebook page.

The afternoon went very pleasantly, with a group turning up in the Millenium Park in the afternoon, with their WIP or their stash to make whatever took their fancy, and we repaired a few yards down the road to the Castle Avenue where the Farmers' Market was in full swing. Normally that takes place on a Sunday but as this is the weekend of the Waterford Festival of Food, it was held on Saturday.

We commandeered a table and chairs in the sunshine by the Castle wall, and we had tea, coffee, and carrot cake from the delicious cake stall run by Helen Fitzgerald, who makes the most yummy carrot, coffee, lemon and other madeira cakes, soda breads and scones. We had chocolate biccies, and passed a very pleasant hour and a half. We attracted some curious visitors, who were probably unaware of our existence, and we had a great laugh with everyone. We even made some  headway with our knitting, and everyone was wearing something they'd knitted themselves.

Farmers' Market Lismore - cakes and fudge and lots more!

Lavender and Old Lace - Spring into Summer Socks

Lavender and Old Lace Socks

I finished these new ankle socks a few days ago and I absolutely love them. They have a lacy Feather and Fan or Old Shale Cuff - the name seems interchangeable but I've made a scarf and a cowl in that design in recent months so I'll stick to Feather and Fan, which describes the lovely lace design perfectly. 

The pattern comes from the aptly named Stitches of Violet Blog - and it was an adaptation in this wool as I had no plain colour sock wool.  I got the wool in Angela's Design Workshop in Lismore where our Knitting Circle meet every Tuesday evening. It's King Cole brand, Zig Zag 4-ply Sock Wool.

Cuff and Eye of Partridge Heel Flap

This is the first pair of socks I'd made in this lovely lavender and violet self-striping wool. Most of the socks I've made in the past year and a half have either been double knitting acrylic - not good as they fray at the  heel after a few week's wear - or pure wool which promptly felted as I didn't realise it wasn't machine-washable superwash wool. The most successful were made with Lidl Sock Wool, which has been terrific value and made comfy hard-wearing socks that have kept me going for over a year now. 

Showing cuff rib on left

Eye of Partridge Heel & Gusset - soft light

Cuff and Rib detail

Modelling the socks - soft lighting.

I think I'm officially a Sockaholic - I have to have a pair on the go at all times, along with any other WIP I'm  busy with. I used to use 4 DPNs (Double-Pointed Needles) but then about a year ago I learnt how to use the Magic Loop with circular needles and haven't looked back. 

Here are some links to YouTube Video Tutorials on the Magic Loop. It is the easiest method and make socks more portable than ever with no fear of losing a needle. I am to be found knitting away in the passenger seat of the car as we drive anywhere - Cork or Dublin mostly - and hubby Jan is used to it now, having a knitwit beside him getting odd looks at traffic lights! 

I would love to try these in the pattern colours, with a plain sock and a patterned cuff, heel flap and toe. It's just harder to get plain yarn than patterned or self-striping for socks, but I'll get there eventually. 

There's been great intercontinental collaboration in the world of sock-design and knitting lately as Stephanie over at Hookin', Knittin' and Livin' took my photo of the Lismore Cable designed by Cyril Cullen and adapted it to the most wonderful socks - which you can see on her blogpost here - aren't they gorgeous? I hope to make them one day, and you'll be the first to know! 

Meanwhile I hope you like my photos - they show the socks in daylight and under soft lighting taken at night - what a difference the light makes! Of course the daylight is the real deal - and they are a lovely colourway that is currently a favourite of  mine - going with my frilly scarf and my Rathcooney hat and mitts.  By the way, my Ravelry name is LismoreLady if you want to visit me there!

Knitting Nirvana - Crafty Books, Done Deals and WIPs

Modelling my frilly ChaChaCha scarf

I know, I know, I promised to  be a more consistent blogger in 2012 and I'm already falling by the wayside. I am writing this on Martin's lovely iMac with a big screen and a sleek brushed steel frame, with the iconic Apple and no big tower like in PC world! I'm sorta minding it for Martin but hopefully he'll not be able to fit it in his suitcase when he comes home for Shayne and Jany's summer wedding! Then I'll get to mind it for a bit longer, and will by then have figured out all that I've forgotten about Apple Macs and their quirkily intelligent Operating Systems. 

Already the keyboard is toast, as Martin spilt tea on the lovely slimline objet d'art before  heading to Australia, rendering 5, T, H and N useless and by extension the whole bloody keyboard - *ry worki*g wi**ou* **ose and you'll soo* fi*d out how much you use *hem! So I'm using a clunky old Dell Keyboard - functional but with no aesthetic properties whatsoever! At least the Apple Mouse is still working, except for the scrolldown button. Which I can live without.

This is a little post on recent knitting I  have done. I joined the Knitting Circle at Angela's Design Workshop last year and thoroughly enjoy it. It's on twice every Tuesday in Lismore, and I go to the evening session as being a wage slave prohibits my attendance at the morning session - that's peopled by a number of retired women including a few retired Public Health Nurses - knitting nurses being quite the thing. It certainly whiled away a few quiet nights for me on agency night duty back in the 70s and 80s - yes, even nurses had quiet nights in some of the smaller private hospitals.

Apple iMac - a thing of  beauty!

Rathcooney Mitts in cotton blend - now in Oz!

The knitting circle is a nice social outlet, people meet to chat, share patterns and ideas, and help each other out with tips on patterns and problems , and even do a bit of skill-sharing - some of us who can crochet gave a demo on making Granny Squares a few weeks back. We have tea and coffee, cakes and biscuits and a good laugh is guaranteed. There's something very cosy about a knitting circle, and it's a great leveller as everyone brings something new and we all gain from it, from absolute beginner to experienced returnee  - which I consider myself to be as I only came back to knitting about 3 years ago after a lifetime away from it - probably over 20 years. 

Book Token buys!

My Christmas Wish List this year was books - Knitting and Crochet books - and I had great fun self-selecting on Amazon. I got two wonderful books - Carol Feller's Contemporary Irish Knits and Stitch'n'Bitch Superstar Knitting. The boys and Anne (Shayne and Jany's Au Pair) gave me book tokens for Easons and Waterstones. I still have the Waterstones' one (no shop nearby) and two weeks back spent a blissful hour browsing the Craft Section in Eason's in Dungarvan - where they have thoughtfully positioned tub armchairs for enhanced browsing - and came away with two great books - The Knitting and Crochet Bible, and The Happy Hooker - Stitch'n'Bitch Crochet! 

Mitts I made to match my cowl Knitmas gift

Great series of books!

I've  been making lots of little things since Christmas - fingerless Rathcooney Mittens from Stolen Stitches Blogger Carol Feller's book being a firm favourite and I made a couple of pairs as presents for friends. I made a matching hat too, and a cowl in Feather and Fan stitch which was like the one I got from Caroline (@scattyhats on Twitter) in the Knitmas Secret Santa which I mentioned in a recent post. I sent some things off to Cathy (@cathyqtpi on Twitter) for her Knitmas gift.  

Rathcooney Mitts for a piano-player friend - Merino wool

Best Irish Knitting book of the year! 

iPhone Cover from Monika on Ravelry

I made some frilly scarves for friends and one or two  for myself - and I have been asked to make some for other people! I made some iPhone covers from Ravelry - which is a fabulous resource for anyone interested in knitting - and right now I am patiently working in painfully slow fine 2-ply Noro Sekku yarn (no 7) - a delicious blend of Cotton, Silk and Wool, which I also got from Caroline for Knitmas. I am doing a Feather and Fan lacy scarf which will take forever as I can't give too much time to it, what with work, baking and blogging amongst other things, and I have other knitting fish to fry as well.

Tivoli Twirl scarf made in car en route to Dublin, gift.

I'll link some of the books and show you some of the photos of the projects.  I hope you get inspiration from this post to try your  hand at knitting - and indeed crochet - and remember start small, you don't have to knit a jumper, something small or baby clothes will give you great satisfaction and you'll have something very special to share with the world - or at least your friends and family!

Modelling my Rathcooney Knits