Knitting: It’s A Marathon, Not A Sprint

(We have a giveaway winner: more on that in just a moment.)

Hello from a splendid hotel in West Yorkshire!

I’m 200 miles from home, attending the twice-yearly gathering of the Stylecraft Blogstars at the Stylecraft woollen mill in Slaithwaite. But I’ll tell you about that properly in my next post, because there is so very much exciting loveliness to show you. I love these weekends. (In case you’re newish to these ‘ere parts, I’ve written before about jollies such as touring the mill, and visiting the Knitting And Crochet Guild archive.)

Anyway, marvellous though the Yorkshire scenery is, it can get a tad chilly – even in July – so I was hoping to finish my ‘Trip To Town’ cardigan before I left home. (The yarn is Drops Nepal, a luscious mix of alpaca and wool.) And I came so close:-

I swear that there’s been actual, measurable, steam coming off my needles for the past few days as I raced in the general direction of the finish line, with a few detours and gettings-lost. But that ribbing down the right hand side just wasn’t quite done before it was time to pile my yarn luggage into the Blunderbus (replacement for the Stinkwagon) and set off. And the raucously colourful buttons I’ve ordered haven’t arrived. Sigh. So close, but not quite close enough to throw over a dress and call it an outfit.

I should have known that I couldn’t get away with rushing it at the eleventh hour. (You’d think I’d have learned my lesson after the Fair Isle skirt fiasco.) Sensible people no doubt plan their knitting as a marathon, not as a sprint. And I never was much of a sprinter. Let’s just hope it doesn’t get too chilly up here.

Ah, marathons. (Spot that seamless change of subject there?) Despite being World’s Least Likely Athlete until I got serious about running two years ago, I’m training for the Abingdon Marathon, which happens to be rather close to where I live… as well as being close to lots and lots of other places… because it’s a MARATHON, so by definition it goes on for a REALLY LONG WAY.

When you tell people you’re going to run a marathon – that’s a half-sentence I NEVER expected to write – they react in one of two ways. Most say something like, ‘Wow, that’s great! You can totally do this, even though I knew you at school when you were the dunce of the PE class. Did I tell you about the time I ran a marathon the day after I broke my leg?’ But other people react with ‘Are you mad?! You do realize that 26.2 miles is a really, really, long way? You’d be stupid to do it. My brother’s neighbour’s hamster’s vet tried running a marathon once, and broke his nose when he ran into a lamp post at Mile 23. His sense of smell Was Never The Same Again. Why don’t you take up croquet instead?’

But hey, you’ve got to push yourself sometimes, haven’t you?

Anyway, back to the cardigan-knitting marathon. Do you think that could count as training?

But enough of that, let’s find out which lucky person has won the Noro book giveaway. Which one of you will soon be able to include this fine volume in your collection?

A big woolly ‘thank you’ to the 118 of you entered. A quick spin of the wheel at random.org reveals that the winner is entry number…

… which just happens to be Alicia Sepulveda from Mexico City. Congratulations, Alicia! I will message you shortly to request contact details so that the publisher can send out your prize. Have loads of fun knitting Noro, and let us know what you make!

Thanks again to the charming folk at Sixth & Spring for providing the prize.

Anyway, I must dash: I have a woollen mill to get to. More soon, my friends!