New year is a funny ol' time, and I realize that folk have wildly different feelings about it. If you're one of those ultra-sorted people who takes their life to the existential gym five times a week for a thorough workout, and you're ticking those life goals off the list faster than the ink will flow from your pen, then I'm sure you're just fine-and-dandy on New Year's Eve, and are up at midnight singing Auld Lang Syne with the best of 'em. (Maybe you even know all the words.) But if life Continue Reading
The Voice Of Wisdom. (That’ll Be You.)
You were right, of course. All of you. That swatch was never going to work. Thank you for your comments. Can you believe it, we had a near-unanimous consensus. That never happens online. What even is the point of the internet if you can’t damage your keyboard by violently punching out vitriol like HOW VERY DARE U IMPLY THAT MAGIC LOOP IS BETTER THAN DPNS!!!!!!!!! I HOPE MOTHS EAT YOUR MERINO AND THE CAT CHEWS YOUR NEEDLES!!!!!! You folks are way too sane and reasonable to be pootling about on Continue Reading
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
When A Knit-Lover Goes Shopping
Want to see something that's both gorgeous and knitting-related? This isn't usually a blog about buying-all-the-things, but occasionally my typing finger hovers a little too persistently over the "Add to cart" button. And on this occasion I succumbed to temptation. Sorry-not-sorry. Would you like to see the contents of the little parcel that fearlessly flew the Atlantic and plopped through my letterbox the other day? Loook! (This isn't a sponsored post - I paid full price, I have no connection Continue Reading
Knitted Butterflies
So it's been cold and grey and damp in a way that suggests the arrival of spring. This cold-and-grey is definitely different from winter cold-and-grey because this is cold-and-grey-WITH-DAFFODILS.* Here's what happens when you try and photograph daffodils at dusk in the pouring rain after an exceptionally tricky day at work. (Don't try this at home, folks: as you can see, it's liable to end with wobbly edges.) So in the absence of spring sunshine, we have to make our own colour. Fortunately, Continue Reading
In Which Life Imitates Art. Or Vice Versa. Or Summat.
Well, I'm back. Properly back, but more on that later. The ridiculous thing was that in my IVF-befuddled state, I clean forgot to mention that my column is in this month's Simply Knitting. Here's a sneaky peek. I really must get on with writing the next one. Anyway, to the point of today's post... There comes a point in many big projects where the novelty of the early stages has well and truly worn off, but the end isn't yet sufficiently in view to draw you closer. You just have to keep on Continue Reading
And Then We Disappeared Off To Herefordshire
So anyway, my parents (the Twisted Seniors) have a long-established tradition of pulling up their tent-pegs and moving to a completely different part of the country every 10-15 years or so. They're at it again as we speak, and have just sold their home in beautiful rural Herefordshire, ready to come and share a county with us here in Oxfordshire. With the move imminent, the Toddler Twinnage and I decided to make a may-or-may-not-be-the-last visit to Herefordshire, whilst the Stoic Spouse stayed Continue Reading
Stylecraft Competition, Yorkshire, Internet Friends, And Champagne.
Oh where to even begin? I'm back from yarn-filled, sun-drenched (despite any regional stereotypes you've encountered) west Yorkshire. I have so much to show you - more, I think, than can realistically be shoe-horned into one blog post, unless you like your blog posts encyclopaedic. Obviously, to anyone who's been dabbling 'Yarnside a-lately, there's the main event, co-judging the Stylecraft / Let's Knit competition to find a luscious new shade of yarn. Here's a teaser photo, but this Continue Reading