Veuf Tricot

Why Refuge?

A number of years ago, an old friend told me that she had ended a relationship.  What stuck in my head was when she said, "I never thought I'd be in an abusive relationship until I was flying across the living room for the second time."  This was not a woman who was passive or timid, in fact she remains one of the most assertive people I know.  More recently, the experiences of other friends have come to light with tales of escaping to a womens' refuge and even a friend who couldn't tell us where she lived in case news reached her former partner.

London Marathon Review

For those of you who own calendars, you will no doubt question why it has taken me over a week to get around to writing about the marathon. I have an excuse and I will get on to it later in the post. And no, it doesn't involve having a note from my mum!

We were brilliantly hosted by Belinda and Neil for the whole weekend and they made it a completely relaxing one, despite the 26.2 mile bit. Belinda has described it here and here.

It is a cliche, but really nothing can prepare you for the experience of running the London Marathon.  Training meant that I finished, but you cannot replicate the atmosphere.  From the tens of thousands of runners nervously pacing around the start area to the hundreds of thousands of spectators, some of whom presumably had no voice by the time they went home, everyone played a part in the spectacle. There were points where the wall of sound was deafening and really drove the runners, me included, to push themselves just that little bit further or faster. 

When I applied, I was conservative about my finish time, so wrote down a time I thought I could achieve of three and a half hours. Of course, what I should have done, was write down a wildly ambitious finish time. I say that not because I have suddenly become an Olympic hopeful, but because it seemed like everyone else did.  In my classroom, I am endlessly telling students that they don't have to follow the flock, but I spent the first half of the marathon slightly frustrated with myself as I dodged and weaved around slower runners. The overtaking continued throughout the whole of the 26 miles and I only really felt that I was going backwards as I came down The Mall towards the finish. To put it into context, in the last 7km of the race, I passed 488 other runners and was passed by just 14.

When I did finish, the first thing I remember is my phone buzzing with a text from Australia to tell me what a good time I'd done. This was before I'd had a chance to stop my watch and look at it myself. The runner tracker on the website clearly did a great job. Three hours and 20 minutes for a first step into the unknown proved to me that I could do it. While it sounds like a long time to keep running, it was actually not unbearably painful, despite the official photos showing my pained expression. In fact, I really enjoyed the day and at mile 20 was wondering whether to do it all again next year.

In the aftermath of the run, I wandered in a daze through the finish zone, was bemused as the luggage lorry guys gave me a round of applause and dragged myself to the Refuge reception on Pall Mall which included a massage soothing enough that I nearly fell asleep on the couch. I did manage to get a good photo though.

The ballot for 2014 opened today.  I'm really tempted to go around again.

Except for my excuse.

We've been undergoing the preparations and making applications for adoption over the last 15 months. Everything has happened at once, so last Monday, rather than put my feet up and take it easy, I met my children for the first time. We've had a week of spending days with them both at their foster carers and with us at home. Today was our day for reflection, hence my first opportunity to write anything. Tomorrow morning we'll drive to the foster carers for the last time, pick the children up and bring them home.

This will obviously have a bit of an impact on our lives, so I'm not sure how much of a blog I can keep up. However, even if I don't, I know that I can be proud of the project to raise money and awareness for Refuge. There is still money trickling in, and the odd pattern sale going through, but my current total is around £3500. To put it into context, that's around £1.50 for each woman and child that Refuge helps in a day. My challenge to you is to go out and do something, anything, big or small to make a difference to those in need.

The Home Straight

I've become rather attached to my iPhone since I got one at the start of last year. One of the bad habits I've developed is a near pathological obsession with what the weather is doing. This becomes paticularly pronounced when I'm looking forward to doing something outside. Since forecasts are only accurate to five days ahead, I only really get excited about events when I know what the weather will be like.

Today, I got the first glimpse of what Sunday will be like in London. I had feared a late April heatwave following the extended winter, but it looks, for now at least, like conditions could well be nearly perfect. The maximum temperature could still be an issue though as it will be more than 10 degrees warmer than the vast majority of my training.

Weather worries aside, I am on the downward slope in anticipation of the race.  I will barely cover any great distance this week as I fatten myself up.  Alongside this, Jen has been helping me with making a last big push with the fundraising. I really have been overwhelmed by the response from the knitting community in buying the Ready, Steady, Go! patterns and yarn and in making direct donations. Without their help, I would undoubtedly have strugled even to make the minimum level of sponsorship. As it is, I'm up at 95% of my revised target with still more coming in. 

If you haven't done so already and would like to buy them, the patterns are available here:

If you would like the same yarns as I used for the samples, the Ready Red and Steady Saffron have both sold out, but there are still a couple of hanks of Go! Green available.

Upping the ante

It's now just under three weeks to go until the big day. I have done the longest training run of 22 miles in under 3 hours, so things are going well. More importantly, I have exceeded my initial target for fundraising. This has put me in a quandary: should I revise the target upwards, or should I leave it and have my Just Giving page continue to tick well over the 100%?

This problem, if you can actually describe it so, is due in no small part to the exposure my fundraising received last week after I was interviewed by Kate Davies. The response to readers of her blog has been nothing short of stunning. As well as selling patterns, I've received direct donations from all over the world. Truly the knitting world has come out in force for me.

So what do I do? When I was a child, the Blue Peter totaliser was an annual feature.  I seem to remember them having to replace it entirely one year as they were overwhelmed with milk bottle tops, or used stamps, or whatever it was they had the youth of the nation sending in. I think that maybe this is the way to go.

If you go over to my Just Giving page now, you'll see that I have not yet reached 100%. This is the revised target and another challenge to face. Can I, with your help, pull in another £1000?

New Pattern: Go! Scarf

I've gone quiet lately and really there hasn't been much to report. Training is still happening, although running 20 miles in freezing conditions really isn't on  my top ten list of things to do on a Sunday.

With a month to go until marathon day, I still can't work out how fast I can go and not end up a blubbing wreck after 15 miles. The problem I have is that all of my training has been up and down the Somerset hills and the marathon course is far, far flatter. My main worry is that the novelty of not having steep slopes will be such that I'll get a bit overexcited and shoot off too quickly. If I do, it won't end well.

Race day aside, the whole purpose of this venture was to raise funds for Refuge. The third and final pattern of the Ready, Steady, Go! collection is now ready to download.  If you have already bought the ebook, then it will come to you automatically. If you haven't bought the ebook, it is available here for £5.00: 

Alternatively, you can buy the single Go! Scarf pattern, for £2.50 here: 

The Go! Scarf is based on the road signs for sharp bends or roundabouts. The border uses the same stitch pattern as with the Ready mitts and Steady hat and has lace chevrons. My aim was for it to be a supporter's accessory, rather than something to wear while out training.  It is useful too as you can point disoriented runners in the right direction. Or not if you're feeling cruel.

The yarn is fantastic Go! Green for Refuge by Bablylonglegs. It is a 4 ply weight in 50% superwash merino and 50% silk. It will be available on Wednesday, with the majority of the proceeds going to Refuge. Keep a beady eye on the website and admire the amazing colours of all of her yarns.

I'd like to give a massive thank you to all who have helped me to get this project off the ground.  The dyers  (Babylonglegs, Skein Queen and Fyberspates) have all been hugely generous with their time and expertise in producing yarns in the perfect colours. Also, I need to thank Andy Robinson at bluefaced.com for very kindly donating the base yarns. Finally, this wouldn't have happened without the publishing duo Jen and Nic who have taken my poorly written notes and made them into proper looking patterns.  

Escaping The Sofa

As the school term has come to a close, I have found it harder and harder to get off my backside and get running. The degree of difficulty I have found in extracting myself from the embrace of the sofa is such that I am convinced that it has become twice as hard as previously to stand up. This can only lead me to one conclusion: there is a small black hole located within the sofa and its gravitational field is holding me down. I assure you that it has absolutely nothing to do with tiredness, nor with laziness.

So just how massive is the black hole? Armed with a pencil and piece of paper, I have estimated the mass.  Since I share a birthday with Isaac Newton, and because I can't do quantum mechanics, I've used classical mechanics.  I won't bore you with the maths or assumptions, but I reckon that down the back of our sofa is an object with a mass of 120 trillion tonnes. 

I went looking for it. I can reveal that in fact there is not a black hole. The vast majority of the mass I had calculated could simply be accounted for in stray stitch markers and other knitting accoutrements.

So if you're finding it hard to extricate yourself from your couch, don't blame the weather, just clear out behind the cushions.

Keeping Going

I am tired.

My training plan says that on some days, like tomorrow, I am supposed to run morning and evening.  When I chose the plan months ago, I presumed that, as I would be uber-fit, it wouldn't be a problem at all.  How wrong I was.

Last week I was subjected to a surfeit of knitters, so leaving the house twice was an escape from giggling, plotting and general cauldron stirring.  Between work and being away all weekend, I really have had a dip in energy.

However, I really can't grumble and moan.  Thanks to some truly generous donations, my fundraising has really picked up so that I'm well over the 50% mark with over a month still to go. This has encouraged me to get on with it, so it's on with the kit and out into the drizzle when I've finished writing.

Please do consider helping my fundraising, either by clicking through from the tab at the top of the page, or by buying the ebook of patterns, in support of the vital work of Refuge.

How to do a folded brim

I'm not great at working from written instructions. Being a simple soul, I prefer to be able to see what I'm supposed to be doing. So this is how to connect the two ends to make a folded brim, based on what was used on the Steady Hat. With thanks to my hand model whose knees suffered for the cause.

To set the scene, I cast on in waste yarn and then joined in the real colour after a couple of rows.  I knitted in stocking stitch for a bit and then in pattern, on larger needles, for the same length.

You need a total of three needles to do this bit: one to hold the live stitches, one to knit with and one to pick up the stitches.

Right. We did this based on the swatch, rather than the whole hat, so you'll see straight needles in the pictures. If you're making the hat, clearly you'll be on circulars.

First go to the waste yarn bit and start to pick up the stitches.

Once you've done all of them, it should look a litle like this:

Next, the fun bit: you need to cut away the waste yarn. Care and patience required the ensure you don't cut the actual stitches too.

To connect the two sets of live stitches, you need to fold your work so that the needles lie side by side. You put the third needle as though to knit the first stitch on the pattern side and then through the first stitch on the plain side. 

Then knit the two together.

Repeat until the whole lot is joined.

And the back/inside:

And that's it.

By the way, the yarn Steady Saffron for Refuge will be available later this week from Skein Queen, so make sure you keep an eye out for the shop update.  Also, if you haven't bought the patterns yet, get over to Ravelry to pick up the ebook for £5.

New Pattern: Steady Hat

I've alluded to it for a while now, but at long last, I've finished the Steady Hat.

As with the Ready Mitts, the hat was designed with a particular function in mind.  One of the problems I have with winter running is getting cold ears when I start off.  Now, I'm not saying my ears are big, but when I met Gary Lineker, he pointed and laughed.  I could have gone for a knitted headband, except for the fact that I'm neither Ray Mears, nor Bjorn Borg. 

I decided that a folded brim would keep my ears warm without having a really thick hat that would cause me to overheat. It's fairly straighforward to knit, and the photos should help with the folded part. The outer layer of the brim is in the same stitch pattern as the mitts so that there's continuity within the collection.  

The Skein Queen yarn really is a great colour and so I will stand out in a crowd. Debbie has dyed this Steady Saffron for Refuge colourway of Desire DK especially for us, and it will go on sale in her shop update on Thursday 28th February 2013. A large proportion of the proceeds from each skein sold will also go to support the work of Refuge. Thank you Debbie for all your help and the wonderful colour!

Next up is the Go! Scarf.  Having selected one idea from the list I'd generated and then swatched for, I had to reject the design as it wouldn't have worked out.  This weekend, I'll start again with my next idea - the joy of swatching.

All proceeds from the pattern sales will be going to fund the excellent work of Refuge with women and children experiencing domestic violence (following Ravelry and PayPal fees). So please do spread the word!

You can purchase a copy of the Steady Hat pattern for £2.50 here: 

Or you can purchase the whole eBook (which will be 3 patterns in total) for £5.00 here: 

Jen and I will be at Unravel in Farnham tomorrow (Saturday 23rd February), and I will be sporting my hat and mitts, so do say hello! Skein Queen and Fyberspates will have Ready, Steady, Go! eBook vouchers available if you would like to purchase on the day.

Many thanks to Nic Blackmore for brilliant layouts and design; Andy Robinson at Bluefaced.com for donating the base yarn to the dyers so that more of the proceeds can go to Refuge; Fyberspates, Skein Queen and BabyLongLegs for yarn support and working on custom colourways for us! And finally to Jen for tech editing the patterns for me... I'm not sure "joiny, join, join" is a standard knitting term, but I think it should be.

If Gregg Wallace was my life coach.....

... he'd be telling me in his usual understated manner that, "Weeks don't get much tougher than this!"  The fact that I've been getting imaginary motivational statements from Gregg should really be a warning sign that things have been far from normal.

Things have started moving apace with our other plans and so I'd been struggling to hold everything in my head at home and at school.  Imagine my delight therefore, when I received a message on Wednesday that OFSTED were coming in on Thursday and Friday.  Sir Michael Wilshaw, the head of OFSTED has made claims about stress in teaching, or lack thereof.  The challenge of being judged on the basis of a 20-30 minute long observation with one class on one day of the school year is, to put it mildly, incredibly daunting.  In the event, the worry was unnecessary as I wasn't seen.  Frustrated doesn't even begin to cover it.

Naturally after a momentous week with very little sleep, I ended Friday with no voice and the start of a debilitating cold that brought with it the most wondrous cough that kept me awake.  Oh joy, oh rapture!  By Sunday morning, I was still feeling awful, to the point that I almost withdrew from the Wokingham Half Marathon.  Having trained hard for months, this was the first chance to run in an event this year and I needed proof that it had been worthwhile.  So I went down to the start in the pouring rain and freezing wind to see how I felt about running.

Adrenaline being the marvel that it is, I decided to really go for it and despite hacking coughing fits around the course, I managed to set a new personal best time.  It wasn't as quick as I'd hoped for a couple of weeks ago, but all things considered, still a big achievement.  Unfortunately, adrenaline doesn't last forever, so last night I was back to the cough, the streaming cold and added aching joints.

Despite the general insanity of last week, it was an exciting one without a dull moment.  I'm hoping that this week will be slightly calmer so that I can catch up on the things I've been neglecting.  Maybe I'll have the Steady Hat finished by the weekend and I definitely must push the fundraising more.

Speaking of which, 1 in 4 women and 1 in 6 men in the UK will suffer from domestic violence at some point in their lives.  I'm raising money for Refuge to help people deal with the after effects of domestic violence.  Please sponsor me by clicking on the tab at the top of the page.  Thank you!

Wokingham Here We Come

Next weekend I'm running my first event of the year, the Wokingham Half Marathon.  You may be wondering why I'd go so far from home to run.  The answer is really simple and two-fold.  Firstly it's where my sister and her family live, so I have a good excuse for dropping in on them.  She's runing too, so it will be a bit of a family day out.  The second reason for going so far is that the course is essentially flat.  Living where I do, hills are a near permanent part of my training.  The opportunity to not have to charge up or down steep slopes is a big draw.

Since I've actually tried to do proper tarining over the last few months, I am in pretty good shape for a reasonably good time.  I can certainly easily go the distance, but the real question is whether I have the pace to run a personal best time and at long last go under 90 minutes.

To find out for yourselves, you'll have to be in Cantley Park just before 11.30 next Sunday when I expect to cross the line.  I'll be the sweaty man in red fingerless mitts.  If you're really lucky, and it's cold enough, you might even get a sneak peek at the Steady Hat that is nearly off the needles.

Finally, thanks to all who have left such kind comments here, on Twitter and on Ravelry.  I still have a way to go to hit the fundraising target, but it's been a great start.