I'm just a curio who can't say no...

I've been on the telly again this week. Working Lunch, BBC2, asked me before Christmas to be a guest on their show and talk about whether knitting is an inexpensive option compared to high street shopping, in the current financial climate. I got the impression they wanted me to say yes it is, so I did.

Knitting can be really expensive and as I own and run a knitting shop I do tend to use the more expensive yarns, I'm a little spoiled, I know. We all know there are really good value quality yarns, we sell lots of emu superwash DK and it's great, we recommend it for all kinds of people, not just beginners.

However, there are some very fabulous natural fibres that don't cost the earth, Wensleydale Longwool for example and Colinette point 5. Manos Silk Blend is also fantastic given the meterage! I could go on.

I took some wool to the studio with me, I even brought some Qiviut but I didn't tell them how much it cost.

I didn't realise that I would only be there for 90 seconds and I had so much to say that I didn't get the time to. (Polly, the researcher who escorted me to the studio asked if I was nervous. I told her I wasn't, excited but not nervous as I spend most of my time talking about knitting so I was in gear and raring to go!)

Personally, I don't think knitting and high street shopping are comparable but as the title says, I can't say no! I reckon that in the long run knitting is less expensive than buying clothes from 'hideous' high street shops. (I was impressed with myself for saying hideous live on the BBC.) I think that we devalue clothes that cost a few pounds and when they loose their lustre after a couple of washes lots of people will simply discard and replace. The big difference with handknitting is that the individual pieces are not so easily replaced and even if they could be they are so valuable that we mend, darn, repair.

The other argument, that I will not go into here, is the questionable sources of the clothes in some of the high street shops and how much the people who make them are being paid.

While I was in the studio I met a very nice man, Hamish, the ceo of the institute for practitioners of advertising. Then I met the presenters, who were great - one of them even knits, but I was still left with the impression that maybe I am not the best ambassador for knitting as I feel like a bit of a curiosity and it's becoming harder to smile through the surprise and inevitable question "but you're a man and you knit?'

Honestly, it's not amazing and I don't really think it's that great. I love knitting and I love talking to other knitters and seeing their work. Maybe I'll start saying no. But how could I say no to Kirstie Allsopp? I love her and I'd love to teach her to knit on her new channel 4 program! And Richard and Judy want to film our book group!

And I'm on Market Kitchen this Saturday at the behest of the gorgeous Amy Lamé.

Anyway, it's rather nice to be back! I'm sorry my anti Pope rant was up for so long but we were having password problems (and it was Christmas). I did lots of knitting over Christmas. I did a Charlene Schurch hat for my dad. In red and white with a Norwegian star design. He loved it. I loved that he loved it. Craig loved it and so I did him a similar hat and I have 3 other orders.

and oh my god look at Melissa's sock, it fabulous!

Knitters 0 Non-knitters 2

After last year's attempt to beat the Eggheads we were up for another challenge and a few months ago we entered BBC4's newest quiz show Only Connect. The Knitters teams was made up myself and Tom, reprising our roles from Eggheads, and new member Esther. The episode was broadcast on Monday night and you can still find it on BBC iPlayer if you're quick. Actually, it's funny how you misremember things - I wasn't looking forward to watching but it wasn't as bad as I thought. We did OK, and certainly have nothing to be too ashamed of...all I kept thinking though was how rough I looked and that I don't smile much ;( We take some comfort in the fact that we were beaten by a team of Quiz Professionals who run their own Quiz Show company! (Though not sure why they were the 'Lapsed Psychologists' and not the 'Quiz Quiz Quiz' team...?

The game itself was a good one. If you're into useless trivia it's perfect for you! What really got the nerves going was when we heard the string-heavy theme tune which made me think...oh dear, this sounds like it's going to be a bit too highbrow for my liking. Indeed, some of the questions in the rehearsal (and the show) went right over my head (I still have no idea what a quark is) but I am especialy proud that we managed to get the pilots of the Thunderbirds in the right order for one point, even if we didn't know any novels by Evelyn Waugh. But our winning streak still hasn't started! Two done, two lost....next time victory is ours.

In a nice twist, Gerard and I went off to our semi-regular pop quiz at our favourite London pub, the Retro Bar last night. With 19 out of 20 we won the bloody thing! hurray. Our prize....we didn't get the money but we did win the 2009 Cliff Richard calendar, which they give away every year in the quiz. Secretly I was quite pleased and I kept hold of mine. So he might be a homophobic hypocrite but he was a bit of a looker once and his tunes (pre-1981) aren't bad. Last time I mentioned Cliff on this blog we had a barrage of Cliff fans getting in touch and commenting to preserve his sainthood. This week they failed to get him to number one in what was a gimmick that actually just tarnishes what is an amazing pop career. It's a shame he had to try so hard with a crap song and a crap gimmick. Re-release some of his good stuff and he's more likely to to get to number one again. There's some kind of irony in Cliff, once a supporter of the hateful Festival of Light, that he's sandwiched between Sex on Fire, I Kissed A Girl and The Pussycat Dolls!

Craig