A fair bit of sweat and maybe a few tears!

Life's irritation number 4 - 

Don't you just hate it when you find you have agreed to something but you don't actually know what is involved!

The trouble with me is I'm a problem solver and an ideas person so no sooner has someone said 'Do you think it would be possible to .............' than my mind is in over-drive and I'm going through the various stages or potential problems that might be encounter, but instead of keeping those thoughts in my head I find that I am saying them out loud!

The challenge I unveiled last week started with an email to my knitting group. The group does get emails from time to time requesting them to knit things for charity, last year we knitted little swimmer for the annual dinner of the Channel Swimming & Piloting Federation so there was nothing strange in that. This request was to knit blood drops for the blood donation service but it didn't say what they were going to be used for. I responded, was sent the patterns designed by Granny Willis, found some red yarn and asked the rest of the group to start knitting. Nothing strange in that either as I have often made suggestions as to what to knit over the years.

The email said that the finished items should have labels sewn on them and I needed to let them know how many we had knitted and they would send the right number. The group has been running for about three and a half years and is not very large, about seven regulars although it has grown a bit in the last few months. I describe us as being of mixed ages and abilities as we range from one member in her 50's who designs and makes tiny toys to my 88 year old Mum who will knit whatever she is told to as long as it's not too complicated.

As our meeting is monthly the completed blood drops were delivered to me by each knitter so when I finally counted them up there were over thirty, not bad for a small group. I emailed back with the number and the reply said the labels were in the post but to expect a phone call.

Well, I got the phone call and the million dollar question.

'Do you think it might be possible to knit a really really large blood drop?'

'Exactly how large?'

'We have something that is the right shape that we thought could make the inside but it needs to be covered in knitting so that it looks like the smaller ones.'

I heard myself saying 'most things are possible but I need to see the thing to be covered, if it is really big we will also need to be supplied with yarn to make it, so maybe one of the major yarn manufacturers might be interested in donating it, I'll email the names of possible suppliers.'

Our finished blood drops were collected and the large item brought for me to look at but had to be taken back straight away so it was out with the tape measure and loads of measurements noted down. It was far too big, at 160 cms tall with a girth of 230 cms, for one person to knit fairly quickly so it would need to be knitted in panels and a number of members press-ganged into doing the knitting, but first they would need a pattern. The giant blood drop shape was constructed in four panels so the knitting would consist of eight panels but how much yarn it would take was anyone's guess.

The initial approach to King Cole Yarns by NHS Blood and Transplant led to a call by me to discuss how many balls we required and after crunching numbers from the measurements compared to the number of balls it takes to make a baby blanket we finally came up with a number that should make the finished item and was acceptable for them to donate. The final say would be obtained from the MD on Friday and yes, the yarn could be dispatched straight to me. By the Monday, our monthly knitting group meeting, the yarn had arrived!

Thank you King Cole Yarns.

Now at this point I still didn't know what the blood drops were going to be used for or where they were going to be put. The campaign still hadn't actually been launched and the date that the giant drop had to be finished by was less than a month away. I suggested that it might be easier to get all my knitters on board if I had a bit more of an idea as to what was going on.

Although I have adapted patterns before I had never actually written one and this one needed to read like a proper pattern as the other knitters had to follow it! I started with swatching (absolutely critical) so that I could work out the tension, then I made a paper pattern based on the measurements which had been taken at 10 cm intervals. This allowed me to calculate the number of stitches wide at each 10 cm, by knowing how many stitches needed to be decreased and how many rows there were between I could work out the rows for the decreases. Once the pattern was written I had to knit a sample to make sure it was right but time was running out and the other knitters need to get started. So after a weekend of knitting in every available moment I still hadn't quite finished but gave out the patterns and yarn anyway. 5 other knitter started but it meant that two knitter had to knit two panels each to get them all done.

I was then let into the secret! There was still some time before the campaign launch but I was told the small drops would appear on trees and this large one would have pride of place in Kings Cross Station. It was then that it hit me! This had the potential of being BIG so messing up was not an option. What else was I going to need to make it all come together? A very long zip and a label to match the ones on the other blood drops. Luckily after a fair bit of searching I found some zip by the metre and the label was easy, red felt letters attached with Bondaweb to white fabric.

I was still keeping the secret location to myself when the Blood doesn't grow on tree campaign was announced on 21st February and even then all I would tell my knitters was that it was a central London location!

The finished knitted panels started to arrive but looked more like a pile of spaghetti.

 They did look a bit better after they had been ironed, then I could see just how long they were! I still hadn't got them all but couldn't wait so started to sew them together.

Sewing up is the one thing that knitters hate the most and I'm no different which is why I have a few UFO's in my collection which still need sewing up and finishing after I don't know how many years.

I spent a weekend sewing, still didn't have the final panels and couldn't try it on the model as although it was on loan it was so large it was in the corner of the office at work. So on Monday it had the first fitting and I was relieved to find that although it wasn't complete it appeared that it would fit.

The remaining panels arrived and as anyone facing a deadline knows the finishing off takes much longer than you imagine. I still had a zip to put in and a number of panels to sew together and hardly any time to do it so after a couple of hours at work I came home and buckled down to the task.

Something else I had decided to do was to sign it in some way as it had crossed my mind that if someone found it languishing in a cupboard in five years time no one would know what it was all about so inside sewn in beside the zip is a label.

Once it was all sewn together I had to fit it and that was a task in itself as even with the zip it was so much fatter than it was tall and it wouldn't fit through the gap. After undoing the seam above the zip I finally managed to get the cover on but needed to sew the seam up again. Once it was on, the undone seam re-sewn and the zip flap caught down to stop it gaping there was only the label to attach. After pondering how it could be hung up (that was being left to others) and being unsure of which side would end up as the front, I opted to pin the label on rather than sew.

Six weeks after that infamous phone call it was finally finished and ready for collection!

PS: I discovered that Suzy Lishman Vice-President of Royal College of Pathologists tweeted a photo of the blood drop at Kings Cross Station last week!

PPS: Sorry that this week's post is so long but it was a mammoth task!

And what's on my needles right now?

It occurred to me that I could offer the Giant Blood Drop Pattern as a give-away but then I can't think of anyone who would want it.

So instead here is the latest thing I have started knitting - Waterlily by Meghan Fernandes from the latest pompom quarterly Issue 8. The yarn is Triskelion Taliesin 4-Ply in a colour called The Moody Grape and I am using an Addi Lace circular needle which I haven't used before and am very impressed with the fine tips.

The Secret is out.

Life's irritation number 3 -

Don't you just hate it when you have a secret that you want to tell everyone but you can't!

After four weeks of pattern writing, knitting and sewing the giant blood drop is finally in place hanging from the 'tree' inside Kings Cross Station. Forming a focal point for today's recruitment stall it will remain there watching over the station's users for one week. This unusual sight attracted a fair bit of attention while I was there this morning resulting in over 100 registrations by lunch time and hopefully even more by 7 pm tonight when the bright red gazebo was packed away.

It was joined by many of the other 400 or so blood drops knitted by individuals and groups from this region which had been hung from the real trees in front of Kings Cross and those too were a source of interest to the many commuters and passers by who stopped to look at them.

Hanging high up there it is difficult to gauge the actual size of that giant so here is another photo of the finished object with a chair to provide scale. Seeing it in place made all the hard work worth while for such a good cause that effects almost everyone at some time in their life.

We are so lucky in this country when being admitted to hospital needing blood but if it wasn't for those who donate freely that vital resource would not be available.

I gave blood a few times back in the late 1980's after my father needed to receive blood but for various reasons I had to stop and didn't think to start again. My 88 year old mother, in the summer of 2012 was so anaemic that she needed 2 units of blood before she could undergo surgery to remove a tumour in her colon, now fully recovered she knitted a quarter of the giant blood drop. So today I registered to give blood again and I know that it is not possible for everyone to but if you can I would urge you to consider doing so.

I will give you an insight into the making of the giant blood drop in next week's blog.

And what's on my needles right now?

Well not actually on my needles but recently off is this version of the Cadence Shawlette by Emily Straw (it is actually double size) knitted in Valkyrie Aran by The Natural Dye Studio. I love this colour which is called Kings Hedge and reminds me of Rainbow Chard.

Two very different Saturdays

Life's irritation number 2 -

Don't you just hate it when you have to work on a Saturday?

Yes, I spent most of last Saturday at work and it was particularly irritating because the previous Saturday I was feeding my yarn habit at the really brilliant Unravel. There are a number of yarn and fibre shows all round the country but this one is my nearest being in Farnham, Surrey. In fact I was actually there on Friday afternoon, taking a workshop on colour knitting with Alison Ellen, Friday evening at the 'new this year' preview event as well as all day Saturday and most of Sunday! There was just so much to see, from these knitted animal heads by Louise Walker which welcomed visitors as they arrived to over 70 stalls of beautiful yarn, fibre, patterns, needles, buttons and everything else a knitter needs to keep them happy.

It wasn't just a shopping feast and I was fair restrained compared to others I observed but I will show you my haul later. This being the third year I have attended it was a chance to see the independent yarn suppliers that I have been buying from over the last year and also to meet up (and lunch) with knitting friends. The knitting community is surprisingly small and very very friendly. Even the husbands and boyfriends who had been brought along to carry the bags seemed amazingly amiable even if they were sat in the foyer with a coffee and the Internet.

Farnham Maltings where Unravel is held is an old building that started life as two, one was a originally a tannery before they both became a brewery so that explains why there are lots of different rooms hidden away on three levels and I remember that the first year I nearly missed half of the show because I didn't realise that there was an upstairs or basement.

The studio hosted some interesting talks and I heard Susan Crawford talk about her Vintage Shetland Project (more about that in a future blog) and Wendy and Belinda from True Brit Knits talk about knitting as a fashion statement, food for thought there.

There were a varied selection of workshops available over the three day but you need to book early as places are limited and the popular ones book up quickly (the ticket price includes weekend entry to the show). It's a great way to try out new skills, I have learnt to knit with beads and entrelac knitting in previous year.

So on to my purchases!

When you put them all together they do look quite a bit but considering it was over three days I don't think it was that bad and I shall have hours of fun with it all!

And what's on my needles right now?

The secret red thing is now finished and will be unveiled next week (more news in the next blog) so this is my second pair of socks which are my 'carrying around knitting' as they are small, will fit into a small bag to be taken out with me and knitted while travelling or waiting. They are following the stitch pattern of Riverside by Rhian Drinkwater published in Simply Knitting issue 117 March 2014. The pattern is written as a top down sock and I wanted to knit toe up so I am adapting it!