The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is currently a media phenomenon, but does it live up to the hype? I think so. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book and then watching the movie and I think it transcends the younger market it was probably aimed at.

The book tells the story of Katniss Everdeen, a young, resourceful girl growing up in coal-mining District 12 of Panem, an autocratic country ruled centrally by the Capitol. In an annual display of oppressive power, the Capitol summons one boy and one girl from each district on Reaping Day and forces them to take part in a televised fight to the death in a huge arena, traditionally leaving just one victor who gets to stay alive.

Katniss volunteers in place of her beloved little sister, Primrose, travels to the Capitol in a luxurious style she’s never experienced before, with ridiculously dressed mentors and soon learns she’ll have to hide her hatred and cynicism for the rulers and make them like and admire her in order to win sponsorship to aid her survival.

There’s no denying that the concept of The Hunger Games is gruesome but the morality of the situation is handled well. Reality tv series such as Big Brother and Survivor were very much in mind as I was reading, but also the Gladiator arenas of Roman times. I believe the original inspiration for the book came from Greek mythology and the story of Theseus and the Minotaur whereby seven boys and seven girls from Athens were sacrificed in the Minotaur’s maze.

Colourway inspiration

In a first for the SQ club, I chose to dye up not one but TWO semi-solid versions.

Mockingjay is a yellow-gold inspired by the pin that Katniss is given by her only school friend, Madge, to keep her safe. Mockingjays are interbreeds of Jabberjays and Mockingbirds and remind Katniss of her late father and of home. Their ability to mimic human vocal sounds also helps her in the arena.

Mockingjay

Everdeen is a semi-solid fresh green inspired by Katniss herself. She’s most comfortable in her own skin when she’s hunting and foraging in the forest and although she wears dark green clothes in the arena, I didn’t think that was quite appropriate for a Spring club, and lightened it up to go for a fresher, springier green which also reflects the valley in District 12 teeming with summer life.

Everdeen

Fire and Forest is the variegated option consisting of strong fiery colours of red, orange and golden yellow with the greens and browns of the forest. Katniss is branded as The Girl on Fire by Cinna at her debut at the Capitol and then later, in the arena, the Gamemakers decide to liven things up by setting the forest on fire to “encourage” her to be nearer to the other tributes.

Fire and Forest

And as for yarn type, I went for sturdy, trustworthy BFL but in the super generous, lengthy 150g skein which gives you a whooping 600m per skein. So if you went for the two-skein option, there’s a chance that you could knit a garment from just one club installment. Even with one skein, you could knit a long pair of socks or a large shawl.

Inspiration for May: The Lifeboat by Charlotte Rogan

Remember this humble little pattern I came up with when my sister was expecting and didn’t fancy the usual baby cardigan, but asked for a blanket instead? Now her baby boy has just turned three-years-old and 521 people on Ravelry alone have knitted one. 5347 people on Ravelry have favourited it and 1663 have added it to their queues.

And those clever knitters out there have created not just baby blankets, but turned the pattern into full-size bedspreads and throws, scarves and cowls.

Here’s a little look at some of the stories behind the Zig and Zag sock yarn pram blanket:

If you can tear your eyes away from the beautiful baby boy, Michael Francis, this blanket was made by AnnaW on Ravelry. He was born three weeks early due to pre-eclampsia and spent a week in intensive care after developing pneumonia, but carried home all snuggled up warm in his Zig and Zag blanket.

This gorgeous example was knitted by stitchinseminary on Ravelry. Her knitting group, The Hurricane Knitters, adopted it as their standard group project when one of them is having a baby. In her words, they “use a solid color for the bottom and top border, eliminate the solid border on the sides, each person does five colors, and then we separate each person’s work with 2 rows of that solid border color.” A really great idea.

I love how the reds and oranges tone up to the blues and greens without being too obviously a rainbow in this blanket by shefee. I found out that shefee lives on Nantucket and owns a yarn store called Flock which stocks these gorgeous Nantucket hat kits using Koigu yarn. That’s very cool. I spent a summer working on the boats which sailed from Hyannis to Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, so I’m delighted to have come across shefee, and if I ever get to go back there, I’ll make a beeline for her store.

Another beautiful example in blues, greens and plum, this time from relaxcris on Ravelry who knitted the blanket for her new great niece who lives in Maine. And here’s cute-as-a-button Julia with her blanket, and some very gorgeous knitted bootees by the look of them.

The basic zig-zag pattern is worked on a 13 stitch repeat, so it’s adaptable into other items, such as this scarf knitted by sockmum on Ravelry. It also shows how the all-one-colour border can be dropped, and you can just work the garter stitch in the colour of the stripe. Very effective.

And be warned. The pattern can be addictive. Javo on Ravelry started knitting the blanket because her sock yarn scrap basket was overflowing and it was the perfect pattern to use it all up so that it wasn’t wasted. She has knitted six to date and had to stop only when her husband asked her to please start knitting him socks again!

And some super dedicated knitters turned the pattern into a full-size bedspread. This one by knittybang is particularly impressive and I bow to her staying power!

This was the original full-sized blanket made by alabamawhirly which she called an unfortunately very large ziggety zaggety blanket.

She was inspired by the number 13 – because of the original stitch pattern. At the time Skein Queen was running a sock club based on Lemony Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events and there were 13 installments of sock yarn. She used a border of 6, 6 and 6 for extra unluckiness and 13 rows of each colour. She added the colours in the order they arrived in the post and had to wait each month for a new delivery, then repeated them in the same order and it’s become the favourite family blanket, as you can see by her twins using it at the beach!

This blanket was knitted by kiknits and I love that she’s used semi-solid colours and wider stripes – we actually dyed some of the yarn for this one here at SQ hq one day. Kiknits wanted to make a blanket for her daughter who “constantly stole” her alpaca throw to snuggle under to watch TV. She  loved alabamawhirly’s blanket and having  just completed the Reading Half Marathon (13.1 miles), she felt that a project this size would be manageable if she set a deadline of the next half marathon to complete it by. She was knitting right up until the deadline, but she did it!

And if you’d like to see more examples of the Zig and Zag blanket, you can see them over here. I think part of why the pattern works is that you can’t really go too wrong on colour choice – almost anything works, from the most variegated, colourful yarn to being knitted all in one colour.

Big thanks to all those here who gave me permission to use their photos and told me a bit about the story behind their pieces.

Hope you’ve had some fun knitting them, thank you for choosing my pattern and if you ever wondered about the origin of the name, apart from the obvious, you’d do well to look here. Those Irish guys used to make me laugh so much.

Pink Pigeon – Entwist – high twist merino sock – 2 skeins

Gainsborough – Entwist – high twist merino sock – 3 skeins

Hummingbird – Entwist – high twist merino sock – 3 skeins

Versailles – Squash – merino sock weight – 4 skeins

Haymitch – Squash – merino sock weight – 4 skeins

Penny Dreadful – Blush – merino/cashmere – 3 skeins

Dark Steel Blue – Blush – merino/cashmere – 1 skein

Bohemian Blue – Blush – merino/cashmere – 1 skein

Silver – Blush – merino/cashmere – 1 skein

Biscuit – Splendid – merino/nylon soft sock weight – 1 skein

Stone’s Throw – Glister – 100% silk laceweight – 4 skeins

Daedalus – Glister – 100% silk – laceweight – 2 skeins

Silver Pink – Glister – 100% silk – laceweight – 4 skeins

Lavender Fields – Glister – 100% silk – 4 skeins

Moonstone – Glister – 100% silk – laceweight – 4 skeins

Duck Egg – Glister – 100% silk – laceweight – 2 skeins

What I have been doing (apart from dyeing):

Hexipuffing

Sewing

Spinning

Designing

And casting on

And for an added bit of excitement, the last installment of the Queen’s Surprise Club for Spring is IN THE POST!!!

First of all, let me tell you about the yarn – an extra expensive and luxurious one this time round – 50% silk 50% baby camel – it’s a 4 ply weight and just drips luxury and softness.

For the semi-solid option, I was inspired by the opening scene the second vignette of Girl Reading by Katie Ward in which Esther and little Hugo are slaying dragons (nettles) with swords (sticks) and they see the bashed nettles excreting sticky resin which they imagine is dragon’s blood. What colour is dragon’s blood? Could be green, I guess – but I opted for the russety red that I imagined it to be.

For the variegated option, back in the first chapter, there is great emphasis on olives, figs and oranges. I must admit to feeling there was some symbolic meaning that I was missing, but I decided to randomly dye up a warm reddish plum with gold and hints of green and called it Fig.

Inspiration for April: Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

It’s very nearly shop update time again and the preview is ready for your perusal.

Much cashmere and silk this week – all will be available in the Skein Queen shop from 8pm BST on Thursday 29th March.

And more yarn information can, as always, be found here.

Petroneus – Delectable – heavy laceweight silk/merino – 1 skein

Oil Slick – Delectable – heavy laceweight silk/merino – 2 skeins (slightly different)

English Damson – Delectable – heavy laceweight silk/merino – 1 skein

Purple Turtle – Delectable – heavy laceweight – silk/merino – 2 skeins

Passionflower – Delectable heavy laceweight – silk/merino – 1 skein

Elephant Hawk – Delectable – heavy laceweight – silk/merino – 1 skein   

Conker – Blush – merino/cashmere – 1 skein

Passionflower – Blush – merino/cashmere – 1 skein

Snow White’s Lips – Blush – merino/cashmere – 2 skeins

Indigo Velvet – Blush – merino/cashmere – 1 skein

Freshwater – Blush – merino/cashmere – 1 skein

Bird’s Egg – Opulent – 100% cashmere – 4 skeins

Cape Cod – Opulent – 100% cashmere – 4 skeins

Granite – Opulent – 100% cashmere – 7 skeins

Dove – Opulent – 100% cashmere – 5 skeins

Tea Rose – Opulent – 100% cashmere – 4 skeins

Whisky Sour – Opulent – 100% cashmere – 2 skeins

Orchid – Kimono – 100% silk – 4 skeins

Shell – Kimono – 100% silk – 2 skeins

Pearl – Kimono – 100% silk – 2 skeins

Seaspray – Kimono – 100% silk – 1 skein

Sphinx – Noble – alpaca/silk – 3 skeins

Rich Tea Biscuit – Noble – alpaca/silk – 2 skeins

Shell – Noble – alpaca/silk – 2 skeins

Wisteria – Noble – alpaca/silk – 2 skeins

Grape – Noble – alpaca/silk – 4 skeins

Magnolia – Plushness – lambswool/angora/cashmere – 1 skein

Magnolia – Exquisite Deluxe – merino/cashmere/nylon – 1 skein

An early rise this morning was most productive – managed to fit in a run. After a couple of months, it wasn’t easy, but my reward was to come back and finish spinning up this beautiful BFL.

This is Hedgehog Fibres club fibre. I was super-indulgent and in need of a treat, so signed up for it this time round, and thoroughly enjoyed spinning this. I’m a firm believer that being a yarnie does not preclude you from buying from other yarnies and spreading a bit of the yarnie love around. I’m not sure what it’ll become as yet but it’s so pretty.

As for knitting, I’m nearly finished my Bunty mitts, pattern by Ella Austin published in issue 6 of Knit Now magazine.

I used Teal and Cranberry with the Naked yarn. There will be more kits – I just have to find some time for winding them up, this time with 25g for the stem colour. Although the 15g in the original kits was enough, it was pretty tight and there are some tips on Ella’s blog for managing your yardage. Please contact me if you do experience a problem and I’ll do my best to help sort it out.

As many of you be aware, Royal Mail are putting their prices up considerably at the end of the month. So much so, that I’m considering moving to offer second class postage as an option for UK customers. There’s several hours work involved in adjusting the shop software if we do decide to offer both first and second class options, but really do need to keep these costs as low as possible. Can hardly fathom them going any higher than they already are. But will keep you informed on the final decision via Ravelry. And bear in mind, they don’t come into effect until 30th April.

In the meantime, look forward to maybe seeing you on Thursday evening.

Darting Minnows and Orange Blossom

Imagine if every time you went to sleep, your memories were erased, like wiping clean an old-fashioned cassette tape, and when you wake up every morning, you have no recollection of who you are, where you are, how old you are or who the person sleeping beside you is.

Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson is a psychological thriller in which the main character, Christine, attempts to piece together her shattered memory and life whilst in the grips of a devastating amnesia caused by a car accident, according to her husband Ben, who patiently explains this to her every day.

With the help of Dr Nash, Chrissy starts writing a daily journal, so that she can start to put together memories of previous days and try to reclaim some of herself – after all, memories define us and “what are we, if not an accumulation of our memories?”

One morning, following a phone call from Dr Nash to read her journal, Chrissy discovers the ominous words “Don’t trust Ben”.

And I really can’t say more than that without giving away any twists or turns in this emotionally gripping novel. Thoroughly enjoyed it – a real page-turner – and thanks to Lyndsey-Jane for the recommendation and I know the love of this book has spread through the club.

Colourway inspiration

Pale blue seemed to fit best for the semi-solid option. There’s something about blue that I associate with that empty, vacant feeling you sometimes get when you’re feeling not quite yourself, or even just a bit dreamy. Like staring into a Spring sky and just losing yourself for a moment. Also, the bathroom tiles that Chrissy starts to recognise are pale blue. As is the bridesmaid’s silk dress she wore for her best friend’s wedding. And she regularly opts to dress in pale blue as she discovers unfamiliar clothes in her set of drawers.

I decided on Darting Minnows as the colourway name as there’s a passage in the book that describes memories darting like minnows in a shallow stream.

For the variegated option, I took the pale blue, and added a darker blue to represent the blue fabric of Ben’s shirt and his eyes, and swirled them together with orange to represent the room smelling of orange blossom – which will make sense, if you’ve read the book – and left some white for the floor tiles. The blue and orange also represent the first time that Chrissy feels that a possible, if unpleasant, memory has been retained when she’s naked in at the bottom of the stairs and “the sun rose, the hall turned from blue to burned orange.”

As for yarn type, following the popularity of Lustrous, I went for a mix of Bluefaced Leicester and silk, which I think would work well on its own, or with Lustrous from any previous clubs and the silk represents the elusive, slippery nature of memories as you get older and I wrote this inspiration sheet on the day I found out my dad’s memory condition had progressed to Alzheimer’s at the not-so-old age of 69, so feels kind of poignant.

March inspiration: Girl Reading by Katie Ward

Look how cute! Isn’t she gorgeous. This was my baby when she was just a few months old. But this photo also fills me with horror and guilt when I think back to the consequences of putting her in a garment made of 100% wool. And I cringe when I see it right around her face.

Shortly afterwards, she succumbed to the most horrendous atopic eczema which thankfully, only lasted almost three years. I say ONLY three years, it was a long three years, but it could have lasted well into her teens. She missed out on three months of development – no crawling or exploring as normal babies do, as she just lay on the floor scratching and crying. We cut her nails short, tried putting socks on her hands to stop her scratching at night, but she’d wake up having scratched her face to pieces, stuck to the sheet as she was caked in blood. We attended a weekly eczema clinic to try to find solutions – but just found that she was allergic to the emollient they’d given to treat her skin in the bath. She developed skin infections where she’d been scratching and I was constantly at the GPs getting more Diprobase and in desperation, topical steroids, which over time, will thin the skin. But if it’s a choice between pus-filled, red raw infection and the smallest amount of steroid cream, then I made my choice. Whether it was the right one, I don’t know. I went to see a homeopathic practitioner and made the changes in my diet whilst breastfeeding to see if that helped. It didn’t. I remember just walking her in her pram for hours to try to get fresh air to cool the skin down. In the end, we took her to the seaside, and the seawater seemed to help and gradually, as she turned three, the eczema subsided and she has beautiful skin now and is thankfully, eczema and totally allergy free and can wear pure wool (though I’m still extra cautious about her wearing it right next to her skin).

So what am I saying? What I’m not saying is don’t put babies in pure wool. I’m well aware that traditionally, wool has been used to clothe babies for centuries. And many babies will be fine. I’m just saying to err on the side of caution with very young babies especially if you have any allergies, hayfever, asthma or eczema in your family and especially between the ages of 3 and 6 months. My son had worn the dreaded sheepsuit before my daughter, with no horrendous consequences (other than the embarrassing photos to haul out when he brings a girlfriend home) and I didn’t even think twice about trying it on my daughter. But I should have known better. I had severe eczema as a baby which lasted until early teens – I mean wrapping up in bandages eczema – and severe asthma which meant I was hospitalised at age 11. So I still kick myself for being so blaze about it. Maybe something else would have been the trigger for her, maybe she would have got it anyway, but what I do know is that wool garment triggered it.

I just know what I’d do if I was to do it over again and I can only speak from experience. No matter how much I love 100% wool and how wonderful it looks knitted up, personally I would keep the beauty of it until the child is a little older. There are plenty of alternative yarns for very young babies.

I thought I would share my experience after being a lone voice in a discussion elsewhere – interested to hear other people’s experiences so that maybe we could build up a better picture of the effects of wool on skin and I’m guessing I may get a lot of people disagreeing, but that’s fine – it all helps to build a picture. If you do decide to comment, it would be interesting to state whether you do have any hereditary skin conditions or allergies in your family.

My goodness – what a busy week. What with Bunty mitt kits and getting custom and wholesale orders dyed up – I seem to be working every hour available. And fighting a nasty, lingering cold and chest infection. No, no, don’t feel sorry for me even if I am virtually begging for sympathy on certain social networks – this is the reality of a running a small business. The shop update must go on… and I have some veritable treats for you. All of which will be available in the Skein Queen shop from 8pm GMT on Thursday.

This week, it’s all about the Voluptuous – yes, there are a limited amount of other yarns, but mostly it’s about the Voluptuous. And I’m putting together this preview a little earlier than usual to give you a day or two for project planning.

Voluptuous facts

A rustic, woolly yarn perfect for sweaters, cardigans, scarves, mitts, hats and especially good for colourwork.

80% British Exmoor Blue 20% organic merino – custom spun by John Arbon in Devon

DK weight – 22 sts and 32 rows = 4 inches on 4mm needles

Comes in:

Regular 200g skeins – 560 yards per skein

Petite 65g – 185 yards per skein

Baby 10g – 28 yards per skein (available for limited time)

Comes in series of semi-solids from warm reds and pinks, blues, purples and greens and neutrals. Started off with four skeins of each, but they’ve been kind of popular on my recent travels.

Granite – Voluptuous 200g – 1 skein

Roadrunner – Voluptuous 200g – 1 skein

Oatmeal – Voluptuous  200g – 2 skeins

Greengage – Voluptuous 200g – 1 skein

Honeycreeper – Voluptuous 200g – 2 skeins

Midnight – Voluptuous 200g – 2 skeins (one very slightly lighter than the other)

Bluejay – Voluptuous 200g – 1 skein

Dark Chickadee – Voluptuous 200g – 2 skeins

Plumberry – Voluptuous 200g – 1 skein

Merlot – Voluptuous 200g – 3 skeins

Snow White’s Lips – Voluptuous 200g – 3 skeins

Bourgainvillea – Voluptuous 200g – 6 skeins

Honesty – Voluptuous 200g – 2 skeins

Pale Rose – Voluptuous 200g – 1 skein

Merlot – Petite Voluptuous – 2 skeins

Cherry Sour – Petite Voluptuous – 1 skein

Snow White’s Lips – Petite Voluptuous – 2 skeins

Dragon Fruit – Petite Voluptuous – 2 skeins

Honesty – Petite Voluptuous – 2 skeins

Pale Rose – Petite Voluptuous – 2 skeins

Chocolate – Petite Voluptuous – 2 skeins

Oatmeal – Petite Voluptuous – 3 skeins

Snowbird – Petite Voluptuous – 1 skein (can make more)

Silver – Petite Voluptuous – 2 skeins

Granite – Petite Voluptuous – 1 skein

Phtalo – Petite Voluptuous – 2 skeins

Dark Chickadee – Petite Voluptuous – 2 skeins

Azure – Petite Voluptuous – 2 skeins

Honeycreeper – Petite Voluptuous – 2 skeins

And there’ll be 10 sets of Baby Voluptuous available – each with five, unique colours.

Petrol – Exquisite – merino/cashmere/nylon – 1 skein

Dark Seaspray – Exquisite – merino/cashmere/nylon – 2 skeins

Spring Lime – Exquisite – merino/cashmere/nylon – 1 skein

Lichen Slate – Exquisite – merino/cashmere/nylon – 2 skeins (1 reskeined so looks different)

Beautyberry – Exquisite – merino/cashmere/nylon – 2 skeins 

Honeyeater – Delectable – merino/silk heavy laceweight – 1 skein

Pillar Box – Delectable – merino/silk heavy laceweight – 1 skein

Adonis – Indulgence – merino/silk/cashmere cobweb

Teal – Enchant – baby alpaca/silk/cashmere – 1 skein

Pale Duck Egg – Enchant – baby alpaca/silk/cashmere – 1 skein

Moss – Enchant – baby alpaca/silk/cashmere – 1 skein

Rich Tea Biscuit – Enchant – baby alpaca/silk/cashmere – 2 skeins

Pewter – Enchant – baby alpaca/silk/cashmere – 1 skein

Lavender Fields – Enchant – baby alpaca/silk/cashmere – 2 skeins

Aren’t these the cutest retro-inspired mitts designed by Ella Austin (of Intrepid Fox kits) and published in the current issue of Knit Now – that’s issue 6 – on the front cover, no less.

The mitts are knitted in Skein Queen Squash 100% merino and I’ve been busy, busy, busy dyeing and winding up little kits with all the yarn you need to knit the Bunty mitts.

There’s the original colourway of Carotene and Chestnut with Naked. But also available were Teal and Pewter with Naked, and also Cranberry and Moss with Naked. They were verrry popular and sold out super quick – but I’ve restocked the original colourway tonight. And dyed up darker versions of the other colourways to be ready later in the week.

We also had a little competition-lette over on the Knit Now forum on Ravelry just for a bit of fun to come up with a fourth colourway.

The winner was knittingtastic who came up with Duck Egg blue for the stems and Cherry Red for the flowers on the Naked background. I love a bit of Duck Egg and the Cherry just makes it pop – a modern take on a retro theme. Look out for that colourway in the shop later this week. Can’t wait to see all the different versions being knitted up. If you happen to be new to colourwork, remember to try to carry your yarn fairly loosely across the back of the knitting, so that you get a nice, even knitted fabric.

And thank you so, so much to everyone who put forward a suggestion – I can’t tell you how difficult it was to choose a winner – some great thoughts, and photos too.

Earlier this week, I was lucky enough to get an invite from Tech Editor extraordinaire, Jen Arnall-Culliford, to stay with her in Frome, Somerset. We had such a good time – mooching around Millie Moon and Marmalade Yarns. Visiting Jen’s Stitch and Bitch group which meets in the foyer of a theatre, dahling! I was persuaded to bring along some yarn and the Stitchers had first pick, with the rest of the sock yarn being nabbed by the wonderful owners of Marmalade Yarns. Jen was so welcoming and the only dampener on proceedings was a stinky bad cold and chest infection I’ve had, so half of her friends must have thought I was a particularly nasal Scot with a very drippy nose and very red eyes.