Thanks to everyone who commented and confirmed that UK and Aussie crochet terminology is the same. Now I’m wondering if the UK has a good crochet magazine. I have to admit, my brain did a little shriek and hid in a corner of my skull at Gillian’s comment about following Japanese patterns. I’d like to see one some day… just warn me first.

In local news (if you don’t know already) Marta of Marta’s yarns passed away recently. I don’t think I ever met her, but I know she made beautiful yarn and was famous for her amazing range of colours.

Unfortunately when I first started knitting I was too poor to buy Marta’s yarn. The first time I visited the shop in Malvern the woman running the place (not Marta) was so rude I decided to just leave. When the city store opened I had a closer look and decided the yarn was definitely worth the price, but I’d have to think of something really special to make. The second time I visited the Malvern store the assistant (a different one) was lovely, but the shop didn’t have what I wanted. (I wanted to make fine silk gloves in a glorious red, but they didn’t have any red silk that day.)

I did buy some undyed laceweight, which I later dyed to make the Scribble Knit shawl, but plain undyed laceweight was nowhere near as exciting as some of the yarns Marta made.

At the risk of sounding cheezy, she was a true artisan and I’m sure the yarn she made and the garments it was made into will be treasured by many, many people for years to come.