The Layering Shrug Knitalong

by Kate's Twirl

As you probably know, I am leading the Layering Shrug knitalong for the iMake podcast. Martine will be posting a new podcast on Wednesday 9 May and there’s a piece of audio in the show staring me! I’m giving handy tips on knitting the layering shrug. Or, at least, I hope that you’ll find them useful. To listen to the podcast (Martine’s podcasts are brilliant, so I recommend it), you can either go to the blog at www.imake.gg or you can go to iTunes and search for the iMake podcast in the podcast section. You can download it to your phone for FREE!

Firstly, if anyone would like to join us on the knitalong, then please do so. We would love to have you knitting with us. There are several of us who have only just cast on and some who are yet to do so, so you won’t be behind! The pattern is Juju Vail’s Layering Shrug which is available to download for FREE from the LoopKnitlounge blog page, the blog for the wonderful Loop in Islington.

The Layering Shrug (Picture from LoopKnitlounge blog)

Keeping in touch

The best thing about participating in a knitalong is the various ways you can communicate with people across the world who are knitting the same project. You can share ideas and pictures, discuss yarn choices and techniques and share when it all goes horribly wrong. In return you’ll get support and encouragement and lots of handy little tips. Plus seeing all the different variations of yarns and colours is great! Beware though, seeing other people’s colour choices can give you colour envy!!

The best way to keep in touch is the Layering Shrug Knitalong thread on the iMake group on Ravelry, but we are also using Twitter and Instagram, using the hashtag #shrugkal. It you like, you can post comments here on my blog and, if you write your own blog, why not post about it yourself and share the post for the rest of the Kalers on the Layering shrug Knitalong thread.

Yarn

The pattern suggests BC Garn’s Allino which is a DK cotton and linen mix, or BC Garn’s Jaipur which is 100% mulberry silk in laceweight. Both give a different texture. The Silk is very lightweight and ideal for over evening wear or on a very hot day, the linen on the other hand creates a heavier fabric, which is much more day wear and practical for British summers! Of course, you don’t have to use either of these yarns. I’d recommend that you use a yarn with at least 50% of either cotton, linen or silk in it though. This is because the weight of the yarn is important to the drape of the fabric and finished garment. If you’re not sure that the yarn you are thinking of will work, then do a swatch of Chart D and take a look at it, not just the size of the piece but also how it hangs. I recommend Chart D because this is knitted in the flat and includes the whole lace repeat. A plain knit swatch will not give you the same type of fabric.

My Layering shrug, using Allino

Martine also chose to use Allino, but she has chosen not to add a stripe. You don’t need to, but you still need to pay attention to the pattern where it indicates a stripe because the yarn is held double on the cast off edges. This is to add weight to the ends of the sleeves, so even if you are not striping you need to still use your yarn held double. You can do this by pulling yarn from the other end of your ball, or by using a second ball at the same time.

Martine’s Shrugkal from her Flickr Feed

Techniques

In general the pattern is quite simple, however, there are a few tricky little techniques to master and we’ve spotted a confusing bit in the pattern when it comes to Chart D too.

The pattern calls for a provisional cast on. This is because you start by knitting the cuff of one of the sleeves, down to the bottom of where you cast off. You then pick up the cast on stitches from the other side and knit up the sleeve. This will make more sense when you come to do it. Don’t be afraid!! Here is a link to a YouTube video showing you how to do a provisional cast on using the crochet method: Provisional cast on

You can also do a provisional cast on using the wire from a set of circular interchangeable needles. Ceci (Acanthus on Ravelry), one of our Kalers posted this video on the Ravelry thread for us: Provisional cast on with a cable. Thank you Ceci, I’m sure this will be a great help to a lot of people. The benefit of this method is that you don’t have to pick up the provisional stitches again when you come to knit in the other direction, because they are already on your cable.

For help with any knitting stitch or technique, simply go to YouTube and search using “knitting” followed by the term used in the pattern; eg “knitting SSK” or “knitting elastic cast off”. Both of these terms are used in the Layering shrug. This will bring up several video tutorials for you to choose from.

The pattern is started by knitting in the round. Which means that once you have cast on, instead of turning your work and knitting the last cast on stitch first, you “join” the work by knitting the first cast on stitch first. When joining you work, be very careful that each of your stitches is the right way up before you knit it. If you twist any on the needle, you will end up with a twisted hoop and will have no option but to start again! You also need to put a stitch marker at this point so that you know when you have finished a complete round. Each “row” on Charts A, B & C represent one round.

SSK is used a lot in the pattern. You need it to create a left slanting decrease to correspond with the right slanting decrease created when knitting 2 stitches together. SSK is done my slipping 2 stitches from left to right needle, individually, as though you were going to knit them (so they twist a little). You then put the left hand needle through both of the slipped stitches on the right hand needle, through the front of those stitches, from left to right. You then knit those 2 stitches together. Personally I find this a very faffy way of achieving a left slanted decrease. I’ve experimented with several different ways and I prefer to simply knit 2 stitches together in the back of the stitch i.e. put the righthand needle through the back loop of the next 2 stitches on the left hand needle and knit them together. It creates exactly the same stitch as the SSK, as far as I can tell!

You may find it easier to keep track of the lace repeats if you use stitch markers. I have placed them every 10 stitches, which is the number of stitches in each pattern repeat of all charts. This way, you know if you have gone wrong in any section and not just when you don’t have the correct number of stitches at the end of the row. You can then correct the error in the section where it needs to be corrected and not mess up how the repeats line up in the finished garment.

So far, Chart D seems to have caused the most confusion. On the very first row (and only the first ever row) of Chart D you have to cast on 4 stitches at the beginning and 3 stitches at the end of the row. This is not done at the beginning and end of every row 1 on Chart D , just the very first one. At Chart D, you also need to start knitting flat instead of in the round, which means you turn your work and knit back over the stitches you’ve just knitted instead of continuing and go back and forth until you finish Chart D. One more thing to say about Chart D and that is that the stitches that you repeat are the 10 stitches between the 2 dark lines on the chart. The stitches outside of those lines are only knitted once in each row.

My layering shrug so far

Gorgeous Mabel asleep on my knitting!

And finally…. the Moonwalk

I’m afraid I’m not above a bit of shameless begging. During the night of 12 May 12, I am participating in Moonwalk London which is a 26.2 mile walk (yes folks, that’s a full MARATHON) to raise money to help in the fight against breast cancer. There are 17000 of us. Mainly women, but some men and we have to (including the men) do it in our bras!! We all decorate our bras and this year’s theme was patriotism. I have, therefore, knitted myself a bra in red, white and blue chenille! PLEASE, Please, please sponsor me at http://www.walkthewalkfundraising.org/kate_ellis

The Bra!!

Craft iMake Knitting

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3KCBWDAY7 – Crafting Balance

by Kate's Twirl

Whoop Whoop DAY 7 of the 3rd Annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week!. This is my final post for this blogging project. If you’ve liked them, don’t worry, I will be posting more, just not as regularly. You can subscribe by email to ensure you don’t miss any. And, if you hated them, you can breathe a sigh of relief until next year’s blog week, when you may come accross me in the search engines again!

Today’s brief is to write about our crafting balance - how we balance all the different crafts we do with each other. Don’t forget to check out other people’s posts on this topic by googling 3KCBWDAY7. I’m sure you’ll find some gems.

Picture by The Middle Muse via Flickr

I can nearly always find time to knit. That’s probably because I’m happy to take it with me, where ever I go. There are some projects that just aren’t portable though, so I usually have a few different projects on the go at the same time. I also like to have projects with different difficulty ratings – something simple so I can watch TV at the same time and other more complex knits for when I have lots of time to devote to just knitting.

This may be about to change, because I am learning how to crochet. Crochet is much more portable and a very easy thing to do whilst sitting on a train or bus (just don’t need the same amount of elbow room). But then my knitting and crochet projects will probably depend on what I want to make, as well as where and when I want to make them.

Percy Pig by Kate’s Twirl Warm heart by Kate’s Twirl

Malaysian Jade & silver earrings and silver and jade stitch markers by Kate’s Twirl

I don’t just do yarn crafts. I also do other, much less portable crafts. I like sewing on the machine – applique is fun, but as it involves getting the machine out, I don’t often get around to doing it. Then there is jewellery making. Again I have to get out lots of beads and silver findings and although making them is jolly quick with instant completed project satisfaction, I rarely get around to getting my kit out.

My knitting though, my knitting lives in my living room, unlike the rest of my craft which is in my craft (ok spare) room. My craft balance is therefore not very balanced at all but rather heavily weighted to my love of knit. Perhaps this will become more knit AND crochet soon, but I can’t see me spending much more than the odd day every few months on my other crafts.

I would like to say thank you very much to all those of you who have joined me in my blog week challenge. I’ll try to blog more often so that I can keep in touch with you all. Please do leave comments for me if you like anything or have any questions.

And finally, I would like to say a huge

THANK YOU

to Martine from iMake for pointing me in the direction of this blog week challenge and to Eskimimi Makes for all her hard work and effort in organising it! I’ve had great fun.

Craft Knitting Sewing

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#3KCBWDAY6 – My crafty skills (oooh get me!)

by Kate's Twirl

Wow day 6 of the 3rd Annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week – only one more to go. To be honest I’m flagging a little and the last 2 topics don’t really grab me, but in for a penny, in for a pound so here goes.

Today’s brief is to write about our knitting and crochet skills and whether or not we strive to improve them or are happy with our lot. Don’t forget to check out other people’s posts on this topic by googling 3KCBWDAY6. Hopefully they’ll have done better than me.

photograph by Squacco via Flickr

PICKING UP SKILLS

I love knitting and talking about knitting. I am always keen to learn new techniques. In fact, each pattern I choose must have a challenge to it , whether it be a more complicated lace pattern, like my 22 Leaves Shawl or a different form of construction, like my Aestlight shawl. Actually, with the Aestlight, which starts with only 3 stitches, increasing at the end of each row until the centre piece is finished, then the edging is knitted by casting on extra stitches and then turning the piece to knit those extra stitches, knitting the final stitch together with the first stitch on the main section of the shawl and then turning around again. The pattern is very well written so this is much easier than it sounds.

To make this more challenging for myself, I decided to knit it using the continental style of knitting. My usual knitting is done with the yarn in the right hand being wrapped over the needle to form the stitch, but with continental (sometimes called German) knitting, the yarn is held in the left hand and is picked up by the right hand needle, rather than being wrapped around the right hand needle with the right hand. I wanted to learn this technique because it can be much quicker when you get the hang of it. It can also be great for colourwork – if you are working with two colours you can hold one in each hand.

DROPPING OFF SKILLS

Cheerful Chicken at the pub quiz (see more of him here)

As well as wanting to pick up new skills, I am also keen to pass them on. I love teaching people how to knit. I am teaching my pub quiz team at the moment. They were fascinated by me knitting during the quiz, and the quizmaster, Andy (or Hamish as Kat insists on calling him) was a little perturbed by someone knitting at his quiz – it’s not very rock and roll is it! To kind of annoy him, I taught Kat to knit one weekend and at the next pub quiz there were TWO of us knitting. The rest of the ”core” team is guys and I jokingly told Andy that we’d all be knitting the following week. On the day, however I suffered a whim when I was about to leave and grabbed needles and spare stash yarn! I wasn’t sure if the guys would go for it, but they were all really keen and thoroughly enjoyed it. Sadly, I’ve not yet had chance to teach lesson 2, but they all took their yarn and sticks home with a view to knitting a mobile phone cover. So far they have learnt to cast on and knit. One of them even mastered purl too – polo necks and v necks, remember?

One of the best places to exchange skills is at a knit night. Even if no-one directly teaches you, they are great places to learn about which techniques are used for what kind of projects… you can always look up how to do them on you tube later! So, if you don’t currently go to one, I recommend you find one quick!

You will be most welcome in London at Loop and in Guernsey at iMake’s Stitch n Bitch.

Happy Knitting!

Craft Knitting

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Knitting and Crochet Blog Week Day 5 – Something Different

by Kate's Twirl

Hello again. We are now at day 5 of the Knitting and Crochet Blog Week and today I was charged with doing something a little bit different. That is to do something other than your standard blog. I rather bravely, or stupidly, decided to do a video blog about my current knitting project, the Shrug KAL (knitalong) and about my recently finished projects.

I have never done anything of the like before, so please bare with me if it’s a bit (a lot) waffly! If you like it, you’ll be able to watch other bloggers make a fool of themselves by using the search term 3KCBWDAY5 in any search engine.

So, without further ado, if you follow this link you’ll see my

videocast!

Thank you for your patience.

“Show” notes

imake pod cast & blog

Sparkly Shoe are Faster blog

http://www.ravelry.com/projects/katestwirl(to see my projects in detail)

My finished projects

Damask shawl Berry Wrap

Aestlight shawl 22 leaves shawl

Craft Knitting

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Knitting and Crochet Blog Week Day 4 – Seasons

by Kate's Twirl

Here we go on day 4 – can’t beleive it’s going so quickly – only 3 more after this one. I will be working for the next 3 days though, so it’s going to be getting harder. The search code for today’s posts is 3KCBWDAY4 (can yer see the pattern yet! – simple eh?!)

I can’t say that today’s topic really grabs me, but I’ll give it a go. The title is

Knitter for all Seasons

Spring blossom Summer breeze

The thing is, that I’m not a knitter for all seasons. Shock horror! My knitting goes in cycles from constant knitting; that is taking it everywhere with me so that I can add a few rows in any spare few minutes – on the bus or tube, waiting for my friends to arrive – actually, strike that last one. Who am I kidding? As my friends will all tell you, I am always late!! ; to harldy picking up sticks at all.

I don’t think that this is due to the seasons, but perhaps it is. In autumn and winter people generally withdraw and spend more time at home. This is true for me too; and with more time at home there is obviously more time to knit. I don’t tend to knit winter woolies though. I’m a shawl girl really, so what I knit isn’t seasonal either. In summer I like to go outside, but knitting outside in summer isn’t really an option for me. I am so hideously pale that I burn in around 10 minutes if I don’t wear sun screen. Sun screen and yarns don’t really mix – euugh sticky!!

I am yet to discover exactly what a summer knit is anyway! There are hundreds of patterns out there for knitted and crocheted bikinis and, heaven forbid, knitted thongs for men! I’ve always wanted to know who on earth could or would wear such things. I have, recently, found out…

Thong (by Joan McGowan Michael for White Lies Designs)

Bikini by Kate Guilbert available on Knitty.com

I am going to be knitting both! offending articles very shortly. I haven’t quite lost my marbles… I am doing the Moonwalk on 12 May which is a 26 mile walk through the streets of London, at night, wearing a bra, in aid of breast cancer charities. We have all been given a bra, but we have to decorate it in something patriotic. I hadn’t got a clue how to decorate mine until Shinybees tweeted me to say that she would sponsor me if I did the walk in a knitted bikini – so that’s it, never one to turn down a bet for charity, there will be a red, white and blue bikini on my needles very soon. It would be greatly appreciated if you could sponsor me by clicking here. If I hit my target, I’ll post a picture of me in the offending article.

I will also be knitting a thong this summer for my lovely friend Richard. Richard is going to partake in the London Naked Bike Ride, which is what it says and is designed to highlight the vulnerability of cyclists in traffic. He is going to paint himself red white and blue and wear a mask of the Queen; it being the Jubilee year. He is, however, worried that his dangly bits may cause offence to Her Majesty so, knowing that I was knitting a bikini, has asked me to knit him a thong… well how could I refuse!!

Shinybees – do you see what you’ve started!

Autumn colours Winter chills

Craft Knitting

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Knitting and Crochet Blog Week Day 3 – My crafty hero

by Kate's Twirl

Well here we are on day 3 and I am really loving this. Today, I have had 75 visits to my blog and I haven’t even posted today’s yet! Woo hoo! The last highest count in one day was 56 back in November when I had to do an awful lot of friend badgering to get people to go take a look!!

This is all jolly exciting and not just the watching of my reader numbers climbing but reading others’ posts to see how they’ve interpreted the “brief”. They are all so very different. Here are a few so you can see for yourself:

iMake

The Thread Panda

Wickedly Artsy

Whatsitknitz

Bleu comme une orange

You can search for others in any search engine, using the search term 3KCBWDAY3 – Have fun and leave comments on those which you like to give them encouragement to write more!

Today I am asked to write about my knitting hero. This is kinda hard because there are so many great knitters out there and they have all touched my life in one way or another. There’s my Grandma who first taught me to knit as a child and then there’s my wonderful friend Martine from iMake who encouraged me to start knitting again and who has been my constant knitty best friend ever since.

Martine and me at our David Tennant Love Fest (we’re not just about craft!!)

Then there are those who are “famous” in the knitty world, whom I admire greatly, such as Susan Cropper, whose yarn shop, Loop, is a true thing of beauty filled with so much yarny goodness that it’s knitter’s heaven, or Juju Vail, who writes the most fabulous patterns, like the Layering Shrug that Martine and I chose for the 2nd iMake knitalong – see this Ravelry link, if you’d like to participate!

The beautiful Megan in Juju’s Layering Shrug (Photo from Juju)

The hero whom I finally chose was The Deadly Knitshade (aka Lauren O’Farrell), famous for yarn storming, Stitch London, Cooey The Pigeon and Knit the City. I didn’t choose her for her knitting style or the fact that she has shocked the world into realising that there are many knitters under 30 and that a lot of them are very cool indeed. No, I chose Lauren because her story is so very inspiring and her quirky sense of humour is just great. These are a few of her marvelous creations:

From left to right: Phonebox cosy by Westminster, Blinkin’ book worm and Bloomin’ Blue Bell (for leaving in pavement cracks)

I’m sure you can all see what I mean about Deadly’s sense of humour.

One of the most inspiring things about Lauren is that she taught herself to knit when she was undergoing treatment for cancer. Lauren used what was a dreadful period in her life to learn a new skill and to take it to a previously unheard of level by adding her own quirky twist to the craft and showing the world of knitting just how much fun it can be.

I’ve never met Lauren or any of her alter egos. I “found” her on twitter as @deadlyknitshade and have only been following her for a couple of months. I was overjoyed, yesterday, when she tweeted “I love this! Knitted chicken out and about” about my blog post of Cheerful Chicken (yesterday’s post), which was heavily inspired by the adventures of Cooey the Pigeon:

Every person who buy’s Lauren’s book, Stitch London gets the materials to make a Cooey of their very own. Mine arrived today (coincidentally) and I’m very much looking forward to knitting a Cooey to keep Cheerful happy! Other delights in Knit the City include the Queen, a Royal Guard and two corgies! a raven, tube mouse, telephone box, Big Ben and Tower Bridge. Well worth a buy just for the pics, even if you don’t knit!

Here are a few more pics of Cooey playing in the snow, so you can see just why I love following @deadlyknitshade so much!

So, a big warm thank you to Deadly Knitshade for her wonderful sense of fun and for allowing me to use her photos in this blog (she didn’t know the blog was about her either – ooops, she will now! Hope you don’t mind!) Rights reserved on all photographs by Deadly Knitshade. Please contact her if you wish to use any.

Craft iMake Knitting Photos

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Knitting and Crochet blog week – Day 2 Photography Challenge

by Kate's Twirl

So day two of the challenge is a photo blog – knitting or crochet related, I guess. I was inspired by Whodunnknit aka DeadlyKnitShade and the adventures of the exceptionally talented Cooey the Pigeon. I follow them both on twitter and fully recommend that you do too; @deadlyknitshade and @cooeythepiegon. If you like my post today, you’ll love Cooey, and don’t forget that you can see everyone else’s blogs for today’s challenge by using 3KCBWDAY2 in a search engine!

The Adventures of Cheerful Chicken

This is Cheerful Chicken, whom I knitted a couple of years ago and who normally lives on the top shelf of my book-case:

Cheerful Chicken at home

As far as I am aware, Cheerful is very happy with his accommodation. He is very knowledgable, living amongst all those books – his favourite hobby is reading!

Reading up on Guernsey law

Cheerful doesn’t just read though, he also has some friends:

Having fun riding with Edgar Hanging out with Mabel

Yesterday, however, I thought it may be nice to take Cheerful out with me to the pub quiz. He had a great time, although he did get a little tipsy.

Waiting for trains is soooo boring Oh here’s the train! On the tube on Kate’s knee

Sadly, when we arrived at the pub quiz it had been cancelled. Poor Cheerful took it rather badly and indulged in the booze!

Cheerful, about to indulge in his pint!

As Cheerful rarely goes out of the house, he isn’t very used to drinking and a whole pint of Guinness is an awful lot for such a small chicken. The journey home was, therefore, a little wobbly.

Careful! you’re dangerously close to the track!

Oooh Is this a really big slide?

Deciding to ride the rest of the way on a Boris bike

Poor little Cheerful soon discovered that his legs just weren’t long enough to reach the pedals and became, well, NOT cheerful, and actually just a little depressed! I scooped him up and tucked him cosily into my project bag and took him home to bed.

He slept well last night but still seemed a little down today, so I took him to my crochet class at Loop to meet Jemima, the teacher (who was a little apprehensive about meeting Cheerful – see yesterday’s blog comment). This cheered Cheerful up no end and he thinks he has found a new hobby, creating Granny Squares!

Cheerful again and crocheting a granny square!

Oh how nice to end on a high note! Bless Cheerful and his new hobby.

Finally, I would like to say a huge THANK YOU to Martine from iMake for encouraging me to take part in this blog week challenge. I’m loving it!

Craft Knitting Photos

9 Comments »

Knitting and Crochet blog week – Colour Lovers

by Kate's Twirl

I have been a very lazy blogger of late. It’s not that I can’t come up with the topics, it’s that I can’t seem to get into the business of sitting down long enough to write the posts. I have, therefore, decided to take part in the 3rd Annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week. This means that I HAVE to blog everyday this week. I’m hoping that this will get me in the mood to blog more often…. of course it could have the adverse effect and make me give up entirely – let’s hope not!

The idea is that lots of people from all over the world blog about a topic on the same day and tag it with the same code. This code can then be searched in Google so that you can see other posts from other bloggers. Today’s code is 3KCBWDAY1 (ooh I’ve just tried it – it works!

So, to the topic. Today’s topic is colour lovers. I can write about anything to do with colour. As anyone who has met me will testify, my favourite colour is blue. Any type of blue from the darkest navy to the palest sky blue, but bright blues and teally colours are my favourite and I have a particular soft spot for duck egg blue home furnishings!

I had, until I came to write this blog, assumed that my blue obsession would transfer over to my knitting. It seems, however, that I am so conscious of my penchant for blue that when I choose yarn, I try not to choose blue! In fact, of the last 7 items I have knitted for myself, only 2 of them have been blue. This is a little shocking for me and I am now very happy that I can use blue yarn again very soon!!

Blue knits:

And, here are my none blue knits, together with a very rare shot of me, wearing pink! Pink I ask you!

So, I have discovered that I am not quite the blue freak that I thought I was. I wonder what else I shall discover about myself this week. Tomorrow’s theme is photography challenge day. Prepare to meet cheerful Chicken!

Craft Knitting

10 Comments »

Instagram addict

by Kate's Twirl

Sorry that it’s been a shamefully long time since I last blogged. Kept having lots of little ideas but never got around to blogging them. *smacks herself on the hand* Must try harder! I have been quite busy though, working a lot and crafting and settling in Mabel (see below).

As you’ll know from earlier posts, I dabble a little in photography. I’m far from an expert but definitely make the “enthusiastic amateur” level – with “amateur” being the key word! The amateur photographer in me has led me to become a little obsessed with an iPhone app called Instagram. It is a photography app allowing you to take photos with your iPhone (not yet available for other smart phones), change them slightly with several different effects and then share them on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Tumblr, Posterous and/or Foursquare. The fabulous Martine from iMake got me into it. It’s a brilliant accompaniment to Twitter, allowing you to tweet pictures of things, but it is also a sharing (social media) site in its own right.

The thing that really got me going with it though, was the arrival of Mabel, my gorgeous new ‘rescue’ cat. Her family had to get rid of her because they’d had twins who are allergic to her, so the poor cat had to go. She is 8 years old and already was an indoor cat, so perfect for me. Needless to say, I love her to bits and I am constantly snapping her with Instagram!

For those of you familiar with Twitter, it works in a very similar way. You “Follow” users and users can “Follow” you. You get a live feed of all the pictures posted by those whom you are following together with your own pictures. You can see news feeds of the pictures that the people you follow have liked and commented on etc as well as see what your followers think of your pictures. There is a like button and those pictures which get lots of “likes” will make it to the Popular page. The other similarity to Twitter is that it uses the hashtag (#) system. If you hashtag your pictures by subject or location they become more easily accessible to other users (followers and non-followers alike). You don’t have to follow someone to see their pictures or to like and comment on them. You can, however, make you feed so that only followers can see you pictures and that all people who want to follow you have to request access first. This is great if you just want to use the app to share pictures with family and friends and not really as a social network.

All my photos are public. I’m really enjoying seeing who “likes” my various pictures and looking at what others have taken to get ideas and inspiration for other pictures. I now walk around with my iPhone at hand so I can take a quick picture of anything that takes my fancy. I no longer see the world in the same way, but see everything as a potential picture. I can often be found trampling flower beds or climbing muddy banks just to get the right shot. The next time you see someone in a strange place waving their iPhone over a precipice or over an expanse of water – they’re not insane, they’re an Instagram addict!

BTW, if you do join Instagram, be sure to follow me: @katestwirl

Photos

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Kate’s Dates

by Kate's Twirl

As it is Valentine’s day, and as I’ve been fortunate enough to experience a very good date recently, it has got me thinking about the terrible dates I’ve had to endure in London. I’m sure I’ve had way more than my fair share! Here are four of the worst ones. All shall remain anonymous, although I’m not quite sure that they deserve it!

Wallet – less

One of my first dates in London was through Match.com. I was new to London so thought I’d give it a go. Certainly won’t be venturing that way again though – just dreadfully unnatural! He seemed ok on paper, tall, well travelled and not bad looking. Shortly before the date he said his wallet had been stolen in Italy and that he therefore had no money. I thought “likely story” but then decided I was being cynical so agreed to meet him anyway. We met at the Regent’s Park tube station. He looked far worse in real life than in his photo, which made me think the photo was probably about 10 years old. It’s not all about looks though, so I went for a walk with him in the park. Conversation didn’t flow terribly naturally and I got the impression that there was something not quite right with him – he was slow and there was a slight slur to his speech. He suggested we go to the pub (on my money!). I bought him a pint and then he challenged me to a game of trivial pursuit. Ordinarily I would think this quite a good thing. He, however, didn’t know any answers and got snippy with me because I knew a lot of them! I had to resort to giving him ridiculously easy clues. I finally gave up on him when he then said “how much money have we left?” because he wanted another drink (WE – I ask you!!)! Needless to say, he didn’t get a second date!

DATE TIP: don’t challenge someone to Trivial Pursuit if you have no general knowledge!

Divorcé

Now, this one, actually wasn’t that bad. He wasn’t quite for me but he was an ok guy. He did, however, ask me for legal advice on divorcing his wife! He then went on to explain the ins and outs of what she wanted in the settlement and what he wanted. Even without hearing her side, I felt that he was being petty and unreasonable. Needless to say, I didn’t see him again either, although he emailed me for more legal advice in a rather distressed state on a Friday evening after having been served papers for an injunction. I gave him as much help as I could and the name of a trusted family lawyer.

DATE TIP: Never discuss your acrimonious divorce

The Licker

I met this guy at a Ceroc dance class. Ceroc is a mix of salsa and other latin with a bit of rock and roll. It’s quite a social thing to do and a relatively good place to meet guys because you swap partners all the time. It can also be hilariously funny for the coordinationally challenged! This guy’s first mistake was inviting me to a date in his neighbourhood. Now, you may not think that that is not too bad, but London is huge and so it is only fair on a first date to meet somewhere between the two places so both have to travel. I had caught a bad cold and texted to warn him, but didn’t cancel in case he thought I was pulling out. I traipsed in the dark and pouring rain to Bethnal Green (not the classiest of areas and not that easy to get to for me – the quickest way being a half hour walk (not an option in that rain though). The date was ok really until we went to a bar with sofas. He bought me a drink and we sat on a sofa. He then started licking me – I kid you not. He licked my neck and my arm – eeeew. I think this was because I didn’t want to kiss him due to my horrid cold! At least, I hope that was the case. I’m not a huge fan of snogging in pubs but being licked by a virtual stranger was down right humiliating!

DATE TIP: never, that is NEVER, lick your date!

(photo courtesy of “Cowboy” Ben Alman on flickr)

Crying in a doorway

Now, once again, the date itself was ok. So much so that even though I didn’t fancy him, and as he hadn’t made a single move whatsoever, I thought that it would be safe to have a second date – I was so wrong!! There was nothing wrong with date two, it was the response to not wanting date 3 that was the problem. Again, at the end of date 2 there was no move to kiss me, so I was lulled into a false sense of security. He texted to say he was going away but would I like a date on his return. I said, thank you, but no thank you. He didn’t take it well and sent a few rather sulky texts. Then at 1.30am he sent a text which read “I am crying in a doorway, I hope you are happy”. Happy? I was furious and turned my phone off! This was followed the next day with the “sorry about last night, can we just be friends” text.

DATE TIP: Always retain your dignity.

Photo courtesy of iMakeGuensey from flickr and you can see how she made it on her blog

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