Now With Added Pie

About a month ago I posted about Ed Reardon's Week and how long it had been since series four had been broadcast. Radio 4 then started broadcasting series eight a week later and I felt a bit stupid. Still, I'd tried out a few graphs before making that post and I ended up going with mostly bar charts because I thought it was the best, or probably only, way to represent the data.

Well, my anonymous commenter requested a pie chart - something I deride on an almost daily basis at work - and it made me think about whether I actually could use a pie chart to represent the number of broadcasts without losing the time component of the dataset. This was the result.

The chart (and all those that I post below) come with a massive set of caveats: The graphs represent distinct broadcasts of a series based on data from the relevant BBC page, though I've discovered that there are definite inaccuracies on those pages. Broadcast dates are taken from the last episode in a series. There is no data from before the mid-2007. The overall sector still represents the number of distinct broadcasts but the coloured areas have no direct significance. Each radial band represents a six month period.

Put simply: this isn't scientific. Think of it as a simplistic infographic that gives visual weight to more recent broadcasts.

Anyway, I realised almost as soon as I uploaded it that the chart was still inaccurate because it doesn't account for the original broadcast date and so I've now altered it slightly to remove the sectors which represent time before the first broadcast. Once I'd done this for Ed Reardon's Week I knew I'd have to do the same for more programmes because... Well, mostly because I'm not actually capable of leaving things like this alone.

The charts are  way more effective where there are a good number of series but I couldn't leave out Cabin Pressure and Bleak Expectations. And, just to make it clear, I'm not making a point with any of these (except for Ed Reardon  - series four please!). I'm just a curious data geek.

Bleak Expectations

Giles Wemmbley-Hogg

The Maltby Collection

Old Harry's Game

Cabin Pressure

Ed Reardon's Week

Oh, and I'm sorry for the inconsistent labelling and font sizes. I don't have an excuse except that I did the charts over a number of nights, on some of which I got bored of labelling.

A big thank you to my anonymous commenter for making me challenge my natural contempt for pie charts!

Apocalyptic Asperatus

Things have been a bit knitting-heavy lately so, while I listen to a bit more radio, I thought I'd post something completely different: some photos of asperatus clouds from my drive home yesterday.

I wasn't driving (obviously) but they are taken from inside a car so the quality of the photos aren't great.

I've not done anything to these photos, the sky really was that colour. Needless to say, it rained quite a lot last night.

All These Things That I've Spun

Apologies for the popropriation, suitable only for fans of The Killers and spinning.

Back in December, I went to The Big Knit Show in Exeter. It was a great day out and I was completely overwhelmed by the wide range of lovely things I wanted to buy. My carefully crafted plan was to walk round the hall twice and plan what to buy before returning with cash. In theory I would then stick to my budget and buy only things that I definitely wanted.

What happened in practice was that I got halfway round the hall and fell in love with a merino/silk blend roving from Sara's Texture Craft. I didn't get a good photo of it but there's a good picture on the site.

I've only been spinning since last summer. In the first few months after learning, I spun pretty much anything I could get my hands on but I haven't actually made anything with what I've spun yet. I have a big bag of multi-coloured (and extremely multi-textured) yarn and only the vaguest idea what to do with them.

I spun the merino/silk blend before Christmas and navajo plied it. Since then it has sat in my knitting bag, begging to be made into something lovely.

It's difficult to be sure exactly how long a hand spun skein is (okay, it's difficult for me to be sure) but I figured it was around 330m, which isn't a lot, so it's been particularly hard to find the right pattern for this. But just before I went to London, I found Maluka on Ravelry, a fabulous free pattern that's extremely economical on yarn (and, fortunately, it has a chart that is clearly legible on a smart phone).

I didn't entirely follow the pattern, I added  a few repeats of the border to be sure I used as much of the yarn as possible. I also finished off with an eyelet row which I'd seen on a number of Ravelry projects.

I stayed up a little too late last night to finish knitting so I could get it blocking as soon as possible. I'm not sure I've ever been more impatient to block something. Because my spinning is so inconsistent there are a lot of areas that are far too tightly spun that have come out a bit hard and they've definitely been improved with the blocking.

The photos aren't great but hopefully it gives an idea of the final result. I'd recommend the pattern to anyone and everyone, I'm sure it looks even better in yarn that hasn't been spun by an incompetent beginner!

I knew there was a reason I bought fifty blocking pins

Misti Alpaca Hand Paint Chunky

Ah, back to the comforts of home: a full-size keyboard and the ability to place images exactly where I want in a post.

Misti Alpaca Hand Paint Chunky. Possibly the softest yarn I've ever owned.

If I'm not too busy catching up on sleep this weekend, I plan to redo the images from the past few days to get rid of that nasty blocky effect. Sorry for that. But at least my worst fears - everything posting in Times New Roman - were unfounded.

Thanks to everyone who has been reading along this week and thanks for putting up with my badly typed ramblings.  Normal service shall be resumed shortly.

Loop

When knitters go to new places, either on holiday or just to a meeting somewhere exotic (Birmingham too), the first question that comes up is "are there any wool shops?" When I said I'd be going to London, the response was almost unanimous: "ooo, Loop"

One of the surprising things about London is its short supply of yarn shops. I've added a special "yarn" search to my places app and it keeps coming up empty. But Loop is probably the most prominent knitting destination in London and I can't quite believe it took me two days to realise that it's just up the street from where I've been staying.

After a bit of getting lost that resulted in me buying two books in Waterstones, I found Loop tucked into a little alley-way. At first glance it looks likes small but eclectic shop but it turns out that the downstairs houses only laceweight, 4ply and (first time I've seen it in England) sport weight. Upstairs there's a lovely selection of heavier yarns and a range of books and leaflets that eclipsed anything I've seen before. And they gave me a canvas bag inside a plastic bag so my stuff wouldn't get rained on. Lovely people!

Calling Loop a knitting destination sounds a little like a marketing line and it is, a little. But comparing it to most knitting shops is also unfair. Like most modern shops they run classes and offer great helpful advice but this is also a shop that has its own pattern book and that slight air of exclusivity is also apparent.

In my little town, knitting shops serve one purpose: they sell cheap wool to fairly uncreative knitters (lots of acrylic, lots of baby sets). Get Knitted in Bristol has a foot in both camps: they stock some fabulous small-scale yarn for addicts plus enough mainstream acrylic to satisfy traditionalists. As I walked into Loop I felt that they may as well have set up security detectors to alert them to any attempts by man-made fibres to gain a foothold in the shop.

And that's great, Loop is very definitely serving a different need to my local shops. Different and, without a doubt, more affluent. At one point I found myself lovingly stroking some cascade 220 as I realised it was almost twice what I'd pay in Bristol.

So, onto what I bought (pictures will have to follow, phone camera in a cafe doesn't do it justice). I fell in love with some breath-taking Yarn Collage in rich browns with silk and sequins woven in but I convinced myself that it wasn't really justified when I've not done anything with my Pixie Dust yet. So instead I bought two skeins of THE softest chunky alpaca that I've ever felt. Walking back from the udderbelly last night I was dreaming of a scarf/hood that would warm my neck and ears, so I think it'll be that. I also bought a German stitch dictionary with some of the most unusual lace patterns I've ever come across. Logically, this can only help me make more stuff. Therefore it can only result in a smaller stash. Therefore, I deserve more yarn. Scientifically proven.

Udderbelly

Yup, giant purple upside down cow. Plus cider. Plus blue-cheese burger. I could get used to London.

Things I Have Learned

Things I've learned today:

1) never eat a cake just because you can't quite believe it exists. It required a fork and left me feeling a bit odd.

2) just because something has the same name as somewhere you're looking for, it doesn't mean it's close.

3) the British Library is a bit intimidating when it is empty.

4) the British Museum is very busy when it's raining.

5) there's a feeling you get when you buy new clothes, change into them and come out feeling like you should be on the run in a blonde wig with the evidence to expose a government conspiracy in your pocket. This feeling is sadly reduced when your quick-change involves swaping one brown jacket for another.

6) if you spend all day walking round London, you will get back and realise that you're really quite tired. You will not feel much like going out in the evening. You will be particularly dismayed to discover that the thing you're going to doesn't start until 9pm.

7) on certain phones, taking screenshots and saving pictures of the route you have walked are equally impossible.

I also met a lovely, lost Japanese lady who was looking for the British Museum. Apparently it's her first time in England and she'll be spending three nights here before going on to Loughborough. There's no way that's not going to be an anti-climax.

Also: whatever you're doing, whatever you're thinking of doing, disapproving head disapproves.