On a cold and dull* November day, what do you need to warm the cockles of your heart? Well, duh: lovely hand-dyed yarn, of course, and a pattern with which to knit it. So don't you reckon it's time for another giveaway, open worldwide? Enter from stage left, Suzie, bearing skeins of marvellously colourful wool. Twisted: Hello, Suzie. Suzie: Hello, Twisted. Twisted (shivering): Cold, isn't it? Suzie (also shivering): Gosh yes, it is cold... as one might quite reasonably expect at Continue Reading
Archives for November 2016
If Freud Were A Knitter
The very last thing that I should be doing right now is beginning a new piece of knitting, just for fun. So... you can probably guess what I’m doing. If you're familiar with the Freudian analytic terms, 'superego', 'ego', and 'id', my knitting is, right now, all id. To clarify: your superego is that irritating voice in your head that earnestly lectures you about the wisdom of washing and blocking your gauge swatches before you measure them. Yeah, I tell that voice to shut up, too, especially Continue Reading
‘Head Over Heels’ Sock Yarn Review
See these? These are happy feet. If it weren't for the fact that they're pointing skywards, then they'd probably be dancing. Badly. So be glad that they're safely away from the ground. The reason for their joy is no doubt obvious. It involves some splendidly colourful new sock yarn. You may have heard already, but a few months ago, Stylecraft launched a range of 4-ply sock yarn called Head Over Heels. It's 75% superwash wool and 25% nylon, and it comes in six different marvellously Continue Reading
The Best Knitting Blogs (IMHO)
The best knitting blogs out there are marvels of inspiration and wit.* Ditto the best crochet blogs of course, but today’s post is unashamedly needle-biased. So whilst we sit here stitching beside the fire, I hope you don’t mind if I show you a few sites that you may or may not have seen before. If you’re a hooker and not a needler, do stick around because regardless of which side of the yarn fence you pitch your tent, there are some mightily inspiring knitting-related words and pictures out Continue Reading
Weekending, With Added Yarn
Well it's been a hunkering-down-for-winter sort of weekend. Saturday was Bonfire Night, of course*:- (*For the benefit of non-UK readers, this is when we commemorate the attempt in 1605 by an enterprising but treasonous chap called Guy Fawkes and several of his bezzies to blow up the Houses Of Parliament using barrel-loads of gunpowder. The plot was foiled, and poor Guy Fawkes got a proper telling-off (and executed). We mark this occasion annually by lighting fireworks and by setting fire to Continue Reading
Autumning
Round here, nature is at last doing autumn properly, instead of lazily slinging a cloudful of water our way and calling it a season. Suddenly, it's cold. Whatever time of day or evening you venture out, you can smell the wood-smoke from people’s log fires, and see ambitiously-stacked spider sanctuaries log-piles leaning against the walls of thatched cottages. In the evening, I pour a glass of red wine and sit down beside our own fire. Then, – more often than not – I immediately shriek and Continue Reading