Happy Birthday to Me!

This is my favourite card. Andy knows me so well! The other thing I got for my birthday, with a gift card from work and some supermarket vouchers, is a DVD player. What's that to do with knitting? Read on!

Americans have wonderful resources - including knitting DVDs. Elizabeth Zimmerman's TV series is available. You can buy DVDs where Meg Swanson talks you through all the stages in a lace shawl or a fair isle vest. You can buy the Knitting Daily TV series which features the authors of your favourite books and knitters you'd love to meet. You can buy a DVD by Andrea Wong showing you how to do Portuguese knitting, which is even faster than Continental, so I hear. You can buy them, but if you are British you cannot play them without a head-aching plunge into the world of technology.

I tried contacting the knitters, and they would reply sweetly and pass me onto their tech guys. This never helped, because the techie guys speak another language and assume you have a level of knowledge and gadgetry that would, if you were so inclined, enable you to launch a small satellite, but really doesn't apply to the average knitter.

Next I tried hunting on the Internet for information and Lo! After a several months determination, all was revealed. If you are in the UK and you wish to play DVDs from the USA, here is the situation as I understand it:

The producers of DVDs divide up the world into regions and make DVDs which will only play on equipment set for that region. This is, they say, to combat piracy, but personally I suspect that all it does it make life difficult for innocent British people who want to watch American DVDs. Anyway, to continue with the solution:

DVD players are made so they can play anything and be sold anywhere, but because of this anti-piracy thing, before the unit leaves the factory, it is set to play one region only. But, and this is the important bit, it has the CAPACITY to play any disc from any region. Enter the clever and generous people who make up the Internet community. If there is a way to make your machine play a disc from any region they will post the solution on the Internet. This is called a hack. Type in the model number of your model and the word 'hack' and see if there is an answer.

If your machine is new, then applying a hack will invalidate your guarantee - so do not do this with new and expensive equipment. Instead, head for your local supermarket/favourite bargain shop and look for a cheap DVD player that advertises it will 'play it all'. Then check on the Internet to see if a hack is available, and if it is, buy the machine (mine is a very neat Phillips machine that was under £30) take it home, apply the hack and BINGO! You can play American knitting DVDs in your own home at last.

Today I sent off for Andrea Wong's DVD at last. I may or may not take to Portuguese knitting - but at least I can explore the option now.

It's Taller Than I Am!!

The back of my cabled shrug is finished. It's about 60" long. I've come down with some kind of bug and am not feeling enthusiastic about anything.

Lame Mitten

This mitten has been languishing in the gigantic UFO parking lot hidden at the top of the house. After my attempt at Elizabeth Zimmerman's Norwegian mittens failed so miserably, I bought a mitten book with a laudable, but ambitious and ultimately doomed to failure of an idea: I would start with the easy mittens and work my way through the book. Good idea. Great way to learn to knit. Trouble is - I hate simple mittens. I'm trying to think of words to describe the mitten above: worthy, numb and naff spring to mind.

So why did I even cast on for the second one? If I felt so negative about one ethnic mitten, whatever made me think two ethnic mittens would be a good idea? In fact they've been cluttering up a basket for months now - but today they meet their doom! I want the Pingouin yarn for the Aran cabled shrug and it will tidy up my stash. I might have to dig out and trash a few more UFOs - they are depressing things to have about the place. Tangible reminders of what a rubbish knitter I am!

The theory wasn't altogether bad - I have made a better job of the easier mitten, although if you look closely you can see that the thumb is green instead of the background colour and the pattern has gone wonky in a couple of places.

My cabling has gone wrong a few times on the shrug as well - but I have seen the answer on the Internet - highlighter tape! What a great idea. It's like a cross between Post its and a highlighter pen. You lay a row of tape over your chart - and move it up one row as you knit. But because it's transparent, you can see where you have been. I have tried using paper and rulers but always have to move them to see what's underneath. I'm going to buy some this week - but the knitting store that sells them also sells wooden needles, which I want to try. So, I might decide what my next project is going to be, swatch for it, then send off for the wooden needles at the same time as the tape - all in the interests of saving postage, of course.

Farewell, Tiny Turbulence

I threw the Turbulence U-necked sweater into the washing machine - and it promptly shrank back to the size I knitted it - blocking to a larger size was only temporary! Every other cotton I've ever worked with has stretched into a saggy baggy faded sad thing after a couple of washes. I wonder if Patons still make Laguna?

I had another light bulb moment when I realised that the shoulders must have seemed to be too long because I'd knitted the sleeves too tight so they didn't fit into the armhole. If the sweater was the same tension all over, I might have finished the neckline and found a tiny person to wear it - but the sleeve line is horrible so into the bin it goes.

The given tension is 22 stitches to 4". I can't remember what I did about tension when I started, but in the actual garment, the body turned out at 25 stitches to 4" and the horrible sleeves at 26.5. The good news is that, thanks to knitting a swatch the other day on Clover needles with coloured tips, I now understand that I wasn't sliding the loop far enough over the tip - it was forming on the tapered part of the knitting pin and that's why each stitch came out too small.

I will make this pattern again. It's my knitting that's at fault, not the design. I like the cabled neck line - and I should be able to do the cables OK next time! I like the bracelet sleeves, the cable up the centre and the twisted rib. I wouldn't make even a test in a light colour - and I happen to have some olive green Jaeger Extra Fine Merino which is currently all knitted up into a failed Cloud by Kim Hargreaves. I could frog that, recondition the yarn and have another go at Turbulence.

Half Way There on the Aran Panel

Eight Panels done and only half way there? Didn't the pattern say 10 panel repeats made a whole garment? Well, yes, but I thanks to the advice from the Ravelry members, I'm trusting a tape measure more than the pattern. I'm also trying it on a lot.

Here's an interesting fact - and one that might explain why people found this shrug came out too short for them. The pattern shows the garment laid out flat. When I measured myself (with Andy's help) I stood up and put my arms out straight. My arm span measured 53 and a half inches. The small size is 54 inches, so, I'll knit the small length I said. BUT, Andy is a careful soul (he works with expensive materials) and he said: 'Put your arms down and measure.' This time I measured 57 inches, much closer to the large size of 60". That's a huge difference, certainly enough to ruin a garment.

Exploring this finding further, we measured Andy first with his arms up and then with his arms held down. The difference in measurements was the same. Then we measured a fleece that fits him perfectly. The fleece, when laid flat on the ground, measured the same across the arm span as Andy did with his arms held down. In other words, you need the larger measurement, the one that you get with your arms held down, in order to get the sleeves long enough. So you have to be careful when you measure yourself. It is safe, however, to measure a favourite garment, because that will come out at the larger size.

Very, very interesting!

I got lost a few times in the pattern - because the increase was every eight rows, and you did it 8 times, I got the number eight in my head, and started making the cable twist every 8 rows instead of every 6 rows. I'm not frogging! I'll just be more careful from now on and if I make a 'real' one I'll count the rows as I go.

Test Yarn

Why do I knit a test garment? Why work with vintage acrylic and oddments? Because I hate waste! If my knitting goes wrong and I'm working with under a fiver's worth of yarn, I can shrug and put it down to experience. The time that went into it was pleasantly spent - like doing a crossword or a jigsaw. If however I have bought fifty pounds or more worth of yarn, and buttons, and the garment goes wrong, it's a tragedy. I feel that I'm a bad knitter and a wasteful person and all kinds of other horrible feelings that I don't want attached to my hobby!

Sewers make lots of test garments. They keep a supply of gingham or muslin and quickly run up a shell to see how the design works. One book I read said that you can expect to throw away 5 patterns for every one that you will make up with good fabric - fashion fabric they call it, to distinguish it from the test fabric. I thought this was a great idea. When people see me knitting they often say that they gave up knitting because they would spend time and money on a garment, put it on and think: nah! I don't like it. It doesn't suit me. Knitting a test garment saves you from this disappointment.

It takes time of course, but you'd be surprised how much knitting time is spent puzzling out the directions and thinking what the *** does that mean? The second attempt knits up in half the time. I also learnt to knit faster. I was an English knitter, or a thrower. Now I knit Continental, which is nearly three times faster. That makes a difference.

It is always difficult to find a bargain pack of double knit, especially if you want a nice colour as well, but my stash is full of other bargains - so much so that I'm getting stricter about what I buy. Even though I want to test a Kim Hargreaves design in Calmer called Cloud, I passed by a bag of Stylecraft cotton in a bright coral pink. It wasn't my colour! It's shameful how acquisitive I am - part of me still yearns for that bag of yarn - it was a bargain after all!

The Yeoman shade card came - their merino wool looks good (I wasn't keen on the acrylic). Buying direct from them would cost around £20 for a garment. When I get better at knitting, I'll probably start doing my test garments in this kind of yarn - a kind of middle road. There are colours like black, cream, pink and burgundy that are always useful because they go with everything. Then if I really love a garment and it suits me, I'll splash out on the fashion wool in the perfect colour. And when will I be this good? By next year. By the end of next year. By the year after for sure!

Horrible Yellow Krista

This is test version number three of a design called 'Krista' by White Lies - the trade name of an American designer called Joan McGowan Michael. I saw a photograph of the design in a knitting magazine and fell in love with it at once. I sent off to America for the design and launched in. Oh dear. Oh dear!! It doesn't look too bad hanging in the window - but nobody living is to be allowed to see how terrible I look wearing it! I'm not just talking yellow test yarn here, which admittedly wouldn't do any pattern any favours. I think there are problems in the lines of the design. I have added waist shaping by decreasing and increasing at the sides in this test version - but test version one had no shaping and test version two had the suggested shaping of using a smaller needle at the waist and I didn't like them either!

I wish I had discovered the Internet sooner. I paid for this pattern before I discovered the Ravelry and knit blog world. I'm not the only one with a horrible Krista, as you will be realising by now if you are - being smarter than me - looking to see what people have to say about the pattern before buying it. There are many good things about this design. The lace front is very pretty - I may add it into another garment one day. The effect of lightness in such a thick, quick-knitting yarn is very, very clever, but knitters be warned - this garment can only work on slender people. I wouldn't risk it on anything over a UK size 10. If you have even the slightest suggestion of a round tummy, forget it! If the tops of your arms are anything but honed perfection, heave a regretful sigh and move on.

It's also quite difficult to knit nicely. You can see on the Internet how many people have had trouble with the lace curling at the bottom edge of Krista. I spent months trying to find out how to make the lace trim at the bottom without it curling up. I hunted through every book I owned. I tried seventeen different cast ons in all different sizes of needles. I even emailed the designer. Unlike Rowan, she didn't respond. The best lace cast on I found came from Rowan, apparently, and was posted on a blog (thanks!) which I now can't find again so that I can post a link. You wind the yarn twice around the needle as you cast on, which gives a lot of stretch, but even with this cast on, the bottom edges of the lace trim still flip up, which is especially horrible on the sleeves.

The idea of this garment is so pretty that if just the right amount of bargain dark mohair came along I think I would try again, but then, I never know when I'm beaten!

Pause for Thought

I completed two of the panel repeats, then followed Maggie Richetti's advice and put the work on a thread so that I could Knit Klip it together, try it on and measure it and think about it. Very interesting. I started measuring in metric, but caught myself just in time. Never again! 4" in not the same as 10 cm, whatever the pattern might say. Now I always measure in the system that the designer used. This is an American pattern, so imperial all the way.

I do not like baggy sleeves, so it feels exactly right at the moment, but several people said it turned out small, so it probably won't be wide enough at the top. OK, I'll carry on increasing for the large size, but because I started increasing every 8 rows (as given for small) and not every 10 rows (as given for large) I'll carry on doing this so the increases are in proportion. And I will write all this down, so that I know what to do on the other side!!

Each repeat is 4.75 inches - so even my math knows that 10 panels will not make 60". I will knit two extra pattern repeats. This being so, I need to stop after one more panel repeat, put it back on the thread and see what I think about the placing of the markers for the back panel.

I feel as if all the kind advice I received from the Ravelry knitters will bring me luck. I'm sure this will be the garment I wear!

When I was making the various swatches a few days ago, I used a pair of Clover needles I bought years ago when I lived in Japan. This pair were white plastic with yellow tips, and the coloured tips helped me understand why my tension in the Turbulence U-necked sweater got smaller and smaller as I went. I suddenly realised that I wasn't pushing the newly formed loops off the tapered tips and onto the main part of the needle.

I'm trying to follow Lucy Neatby's instructions to knit on the tips of the needle because my knitting used to get larger and larger as I used to stretch the original stitch by shoving a complete second needle in. Knitting at the tips avoids this. BUT the second error I was falling in to was knitting at the tips, and not making sure the new loop went off the tip and onto the body of the needle so that it formed the correct size. And not knowing that I was doing any of this meant that none of my stitches were consistent. Leading to knitting hell. This could be a useful discovery.

Hurray for the Cavalry @ Ravelry

Before I went to work yesterday I went onto Ravelry (the Internet knitting community) and emailed a couple of people who had already made the Aran shrug. When I got home from work I had replies from around the world. Isn't the Internet brilliant?

The people who had most liked the shrug were those who didn't bother much with tension (gauge). The shrug had turned out too small or the neck hadn't worked for a couple of people, which suggests to me that there are problems in the pattern. Experienced knitters were able to jump over the hurdles, others smacked into the barriers caused by a less than perfect pattern.

Me? With my history of failure, shouldn't I quit now? But I like this shrug!! Decided to carry on, bearing in mind all the kind words and shared experiences sent by the other knitters, I'm going to try to apply common sense to the garment and see if I can make it work.

Above is the swatch that I'm keeping. (I've used a ball and half just swatching!). It's knit on 5.5 mm needles and the yarn is Pingoun Aran - I have 11 balls (Or I did have!) and another ball that I started to knit some fair isle mittens with and got bored. I can rescue that if I need to. I also have some green mohair which I can use as a contrasting trim if I run out of yarn.

The row gauge is slightly too small, and my favourite jacket measures one inch more than the given size for the smaller version, so I'm going to knit the larger size. A jolly Californian knitter suggested changing needle size for the collar to get the larger gauge. A light bulb went off in my head. Do I not own a DVD with Lucy Neatby demonstrating how to make a rib roll-neck sit beautifully by changing needle size as you work? If you knit an inch, then change to a larger needle, knit another inch and change up again, the rib expands slightly and wants to lie flat. It's a nice theory, isn't it?

Well, I'm committed now. Here we go...

Tension Hell

I should have known there was no easy knitting! I gave up on the 'Simple' (the very word makes me want to scream) jacket. I should have ignored the word simple in the title and paid more attention to the two star rating. I'm beginning to realise that I'm a one star kind of knitter.

So, I rummaged in my stash, fetched out some Aran and waded in to the cabled Aran shrug. You can buy the Crystal Palace yarns here, if the test is a success. Which it already isn't. I didn't rush in! I don't deserve to suffer - I was a good knitter and checked Ravelry first. About a dozen people had knit the cabled shrug. Nobody reported any horrors, although one person hated the finished garment and one said she'd made one for her mum, who loved it. Which made me wonder about the fashion element inherent in that statement. Which then made me wonder about my attitude to mothers. Hopefully it was a mother of the fashionable variety who loved that shrug.

So, after checking I waded in. I knit a half swatch and got the stocking stitch tension of 14 stitches and 19 rows. I cast on, and bar a few of the inevitable snarls caused by me mixing with cables, I did 5 happy inches. And then I stopped to measure. Oh my paws and whiskers. What is going on here? It was far too big - and open and sloppy. I went back to the pattern. Oh, yes, they give a second tension for the Aran panels. I did notice that, but I remember deciding to knit on and check the tension once I'd done a few inches. The tension for the Aran panel is 21 stitches and 21 rows. Wait a minute, here! Isn't that rather a long way away from 14 stitches and 19 rows? In the same piece of fabric? No needle change or anything.

I've spend several hours wrestling with this and coming to no useful conclusion. I started again on needles that got 21 stitches in the Aran, but it looks too small and the row tension is off. Calculating the pattern repeat I can see that it would be 35" long instead of 54" long. This is progress. Once over I'd have knit the whole thing and then found that out!

Baffled! I wish I'd stuck to baffling short rows now. Now I have two garments in pieces that I can't do. To make matters worse, we called in at a yarn store. Oh, the glory of real wool! I wish I could knit.

Short Row Slough of Despond

The positive side of this week's knitting is that, thanks to Lucy Neatby's DVD, I now understand that I was mixing up all the many kinds of short row. I'd got all the techniques hopelessly confused. There are three main kinds of short row:
1. yarn over
2. wrap
3. Japanese
And, you have to keep in mind that the neatening process (when you work back and do a manoeuvre to hide the place where you turned) is different for all the techniques and for knitting or purling, so in fact there are about 7 kinds of stitch manipulation in total. Now that I know this, my head is a lot, lot clearer! I was using a pin and wrapping the stitch. Don't laugh. It isn't funny!

This vintage jacket has sleeves that are knit sideways and shaped at the cap with short rows. I watched the section on short rows a couple of times, light bulb moments pinging and blazing while I did, and then picked up the sleeve for the 'simple' Garter Stitch Jacket. I couldn't follow the instructions. They are so sketchy! I read them slowly out loud to Andy, which sometimes helps. He's very good at spatial things, and then sometimes as I explain it to him, I get it, but we were both baffled.

There is no schemata, so I can't measure the width of the sleeve to see if I'm on track. It's a vintage pattern, so I can't ask anyone else who is making it. I went to Ravelry and checked the boards. Nada. So I just launched in. I've gone wrong, of course, and will have to undo two thirds of the sleeve that 's in the picture, but I think I understand how to make it now. BUT...there's another little wrinkle. As I was knitting away I suddenly thought: Lucy's DVD shows how to graft garter stitch. Why didn't I use a provisional cast on and then I could have grafted the two sleeves sides together? The seam on the 80s photograph looks ugly. I didn't have the moral fibre to undo so much knitting, but now I have to pull most of it back...oh, I don't know! I might go back to finishing the yoke while I think about it.

I found a pattern for a Aran cabled shrug in Kaya wool by Crystal Palace Yarns on the Internet last night. It is EXACTLY the kind of garment I like - so far as one can tell from looking at a picture. I'm mad to cast on for it now! Or at least start swatching and see if I've got enough Aran in my stash to make a test garment with. The trouble is that I watched a programme on the BBC about time management (do you remember it? Garner and someone, was it? Two chaps in suits) and they strongly made the point that it was about 30% faster to start one project and stick with it. 30% faster I like. Not casting on for this wonderful garment I don't like! I might just make a swatch, just to see.

I don't know if you can buy Crystal Palace Yarns over here. I'll look out for it. The pattern is so clearly written. Maybe I could do this one. Maybe I should leave the 'Simple' jacket until I'm an expert knitter. I definitely should have been more influenced by the two stars for 'knitters with some expereince' and less carried away by the word simple!

And I Thought it Would be a Quick Knit!

I don't know what gets into me. Where does my sense of proportion go? I think it was the word 'simple' in the title. A simple little old jacket. Designed in 1934? Nothing but garter stitch. Blow that off in a week. No trouble.

I have a 'to knit' wish list as high as the Eiffel Tower -and I'm slogging away with charity shop yarn, and it's taking ages! I have a lot less time at the moment, but still...

The back and sides are finished, and I cast on for the back yoke - but the pattern gives practically no information, so what if I haven't done it right? You pick up and knit 70 stitches 'across the back.' What does that mean? Up to what point of the armhole shaping should I go?

After three inches of worrying, I realised the sensible thing to do was stop, knit a sleeve and then see how the sleeve would fit into the back shaping. Read the sleeve instructions - they are knitted sideways and the sleeve cap is done with short rows! 'Simple' Oh ha ha. Just carry me away, now!

Cast on for the sleeve and knit an inch. Sleeves take ages whatever direction you knit them in!

More Turbulence Problems

This photo was taken by mistake, but I like it because you can see my stash in the background - on top of the wardrobe. I'm gazing at my camera, puzzled, wondering what the best angle to hold it at would be. It's really hard taking photographs. I never did manage to work out how to take a picture that showed clearly how the neck of the Turbulence U-necked sweater gaped - I've knitted the shoulders too long, so back it all has to come. This happened with Krista. I measured both garments carefully when I blocked, so I'm beginning to wonder if I have short shoulders? It's the kind of information to look out for, when customizing a pattern. Next Turbulence I knit, I'm going to measure my armhole against the knitted piece, and if the garment seems long, then I'll stop knitting. I undid at least an inch of the shoulders.

The good news is that it's recoverable. The bad news is that I'm sick of it! I've already done the neck three times. I've put it all away in a deep dark hole until next weekend.

I don't think this garment knitted in a light colour will do anything for me. I probably won't wear this version. It is too small, and that's my knitting mistake, but the light colour makes it very unflattering around the tum and the arm area is painful! Talk about bingo wings! I love the neckline with the cable detail and the bracelet sleeves, so I think I'll knit another test version - in a lovely dark Gothic colour.

In theory, I ought to sew this cotton one up until I get it right, because how else am I going to learn? But like Tangerine Alef, and horrible Yellow Krista, it might stay in its hole until next spring, when it's light enough to see for sewing after work.

A Whole Week's Knitting

The size of the piece is deceptive - I've had very little time, but it knits up real quick. This piece is the sides and back knitted together, sideways. then you pick up stitches across the centre for the back and front yoke, the the sleeves are knitted sideways in one piece. Simple, huh? It seems to be going OK, although I've lost a stitch somewhere. I don't know if I'll like it - the yarn looks very crushed. I'll carry on though, it's a nice soothing knit.

I managed to seam up the second sleeve of Turbulence one night last week. I started setting in the sleeve, but I was so tired that I went wrong three times and gave up. I'm off to do it now (Sunday) in what passes for good light in November in Lancashire.

November Project

I have sewn up one sleeve on the Turbulence U-necked sweater, but seaming isn't knitting. When I get home frazzled after a long day with only an hour or less to relax before bed, I don't want to do seaming, I want to KNIT! So I've started the simple garter stitch jacket. I think it was the word 'simple' in the title that attracted me. 'Simple' sounds good to me! Maybe I can manage simple without the sturm and drang that accompanies so many of my projects.

The pattern is from a book published by Vogue in the 1980s - a collection of vintage patterns. There is a picture of a model with 80s hair wearing the jacket - but no schemata or measurements. We have much better patterns these days. I also like knowing who designed a garment. Then you can look out for their pattern books and read their blogs or websites. It makes the garment feel more like a friend designed it somehow. I think one of the hardest things about knitting is finding the right patterns, and if you love a designer's work and their patterns turn out for you - Kim Hargreaves and Norah Gaughn spring to mind - it helps the selection process.

The yarn is also vintage. It's 100% wool in Aran-weight, in quite a nice soft green with flecks in the wool, and there was heaps of it, which is good, but it's not that nice to knit with. It's very 'grabby' and keeps making a butcher's knot around my yarn-holding finger, which is annoying as I have to keep stopping and undoing it. It's been treated to be machine washable, but this has made it very rough and hard, so it's more like stroking porcupines than kittens. Well, maybe I exaggerate a little. Imagine stroking baby hedgehogs, that about describes it.

I saw an advert for Yeoman Yarns in December's copy of Yarn Forward, so I've sent off for the shade card. Their double knit acrylic is only 79p a ball - and the advert promises it's much better quality than the acrylic you can buy on a market stall. I used Robin acrylic from a market stall to knit a 50s 'Ladies Jacket'. Luckily my knitting was so awful that it had to go to the trash can. I say luckily, because although the acrylic was a nice colour and knit well, it did look cheap and naff in a finished garment. I tried it on with the tweed skirt it was knitted to go with. The skirt is a good one in a beautiful fabric (a Paul Costelloe snapped up in a sale) and the acrylic knitted fabric looked so wrong above it. Even though I use thrift shop finds for my test garments, I still always start out with the hope that they will be wearable!

I'm already thinking that I'll need to make another Turbulence before I knit the 'real' one. This is because I'm going to add waist shaping to the next one, and knit the sleeves in the round. That's two changes to test out before launching into one knit in expensive wool. I also want to make one in a dark colour. If the boxy shape of the garment still makes my middle-aged middle looked even more middle-aged than it is, even knit in a nice dark Gothic colour, then I'll save the lovely Jaeger for another project.

Lovely Pink Silk

It's taken me over half an hour to get into Blogger today - for some reason it wouldn't accept my password while I was logged in, but the password was correct because when I logged in as Andy, it let me log in as me! Words fail me.

Computer frustration almost destroyed my pleasure in this lovely stash addition - 50p worth of lovely pink silk. But not quite - it will be perfect for poppies.

Tomorrow I'll report on progress on Turbulence - and my new project. I've had it for now.

Sleeves are Done

I don't think I'll ever dare wash this sweater - it took so much pulling, tugging and coaxing to get the sleeves anywhere near the size they were supposed to be.

The side seams are done too. I stitched it up while watching Strictly Come Dancing last night. I'm getting nervous as completion looms - it's been a long and traumatic journey!