Today is the five-year blogiversary of The Twisted Yarn. I can hardly believe it! If this were a child, they'd be out of nappies and into school. (Heaven help this blog once it's legally old enough to drink.) As always on 23rd October, I'm wheeling out a picture of the cake with which the Stoic Spouse surprised me on my first blogiversary because, well because it was just perfect and wonderful and delicious and, other than the cake via which he proposed marriage way back in 2007, this was Continue Reading
What A Week
This year's Stylecraft Blog Tour has been fun so far. If you've been following along, you'll have seen all sorts of pretty knits and hookings, each one designed by one of the Stylecraft Blogstars, and each reflecting its designer's style and personality. Clearly my own personality is 'Woman who likes looking at dead stuff that drops off trees in autumn'. Thank you for your comments about the pattern (available for free, here). For those of you who asked, I'm going to produce it as a pdf so Continue Reading
In Which I Get To Witter About Yarn On TV
It's good to step outside your comfort zone every once in a while. It's maybe not so clever to leap naked from a speeding comfort zone, yelling 'geronimo!' and brandishing the Antarctic flag. But hey. It would be fair to say that last weekend, I ventured a very, very, long way from my comfort zone. (Just for the record, my comfort zone is located in front of the fire, post-run, with friends, wine, books, and knitting/crochet. ) My comfort zone is definitely not to be found in a television 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
Over To You
On Sunday, this blog quietly turned three, which gives me an OK-ish excuse to wheel out pictures of the cake that the Stoic Spouse secretly had commissioned ahead of this site's first blogiversary, in 2014. (Way back in the mists of time, he also proposed via a cake. Are you spotting a theme in this man's primary means of communication? If he ever decides to ditch me, it'll probably be via an 'I want a divorce' cake.) The blogiversary cake was large, and rather delicious. I wish I could have Continue Reading
Blogstars
Last weekend I was in West Yorkshire at the invitation of Stylecraft. The occasion was the inaugural meeting of their 'Blogstars' programme, in which a dozen of us yarny bloggers/designers get the chance to work closely with Stylecraft and hear whispers about new yarns that are on their way. (Clue: there are some very interesting and unexpected developments afoot.) They kindly asked me to take part. 'Would you like to come up to the picturesque valleys of West Yorkshire, tour our old woollen Continue Reading
Wobbly Blog Is No Longer Wobbly
Never work with children or animals, they say. I'd add technology: never work with technology... except for the fact that you can't avoid the stuff. It's great when it's doing what it should: I have a gadget strapped to my wrist that buzzes and shouts MOVE! if I've been sitting still for longer than is healthy - this thing is a little like my husband, reproduced in electronic form. But I'm sorry to report that we've had a wobble here at TTY that made it impossible for people to comment/like Continue Reading
So That Was 2015
Oh all right then, I submit. Every other blogger in the world has produced lovely collages of their stuff for an end-of-2015 post, so I suppose I should follow suit. Here are six images of 2015-y goodness from TheTwistedYarn. I hope you enjoy them. (And for those of you kind enough to have followed this blog a'while, I hope you don't expire through boredom from the repetition of these pictures.) So let's begin with some of the things that I designed from scratch in 2015. As you'll see, there's Continue Reading
The (Very Very) Alternative How To Blog
No! Don't run away, non-bloggers! Because this is the alternative how-to-blog guide that's just as relevant to readers as it is to writers. That weird lump you can see on my face is my tongue, firmly inserted into my cheek whilst I write. This is the blogging guide that you'll never ever read on more serious how-to-blog sites, I promise. Also, I guarantee not to be able to tell you how to make millions from your blog. Sorry. Here, my fine fibrous friends, are the unexpected things that they Continue Reading
Christmas? Also Mega-Yachts
Christmas is ages away, right? There's still l-o-a-d-s of time? Yes? What's that you say? No, no, I'm not speaking in a high-pitched, hysterical voice: I've just... got a bit of a cold, that's all. But everything's under control round here. Absolutely everything. Far be it for me to play chicken with the last posting date before Christmas... again... More seriously, thank you for all of your kind words after the shock and sadness of last week's fatal fire. Everyone at the hospital (patients Continue Reading