Ten years ago today, I started The Twisted Yarn with this post. I didn't know whether anyone would read it, let alone like it. Perhaps the Internet would take one look and burst into guffaws of derision. I didn't know where this yarny journey might lead, but I needed to chatter about knitting, and if I could make anyone smile along the way, so much the better. I'd only returned to knitting the year before, inspired by my wonderful friend whom I met when she was frustratingly-briefly posted to Continue Reading
A Distraction
Well thank you, good people of the internet, for your kind response to the Four Seasons Cowl. There seem to have been some techie glitches with the blog that may have prevented access at times, so I did what any right-minded IT-whizz* would do, and swore with creative abandon, drank too much wine, then hit the internet quite hard with a hammer.** It appears to have worked. So hopefully you can read this post. If you can't, let me know. Oh... um... wait... [Sound of mental cogs grinding very, Continue Reading
The Four Seasons Cowl: A New Pattern
It's done. The new cowl pattern is complete in all four of its seasonal connotations, and the pattern is HERE. Not that you're likely to wear a cowl all year round, but each of the above palettes has been inspired by a season, so that you can for example bring bold summer cheerfulness to your grey Monday in February as you run for the bus in the rain. I'm sure that those joyful pinks and purples will lift your mood as you watch the bus leave your stop when you're almost there, passing as it Continue Reading
Nearly There
So in this little journey through the four seasons via my new cowl design, I've finally alighted on spring. There's no daffodil-yellow in the Highland Heathers range as yet (hint hint, Stylecraft!) so I couldn't fully convey the blue-yellow-white palette of spring shades. Yeah, yeah, I need to weed this little patio that I built in the photo above. It'll happen soon. But still, I hope you get the hints of optimistic greenery and flowers against a background of endless grey rain and the Continue Reading
Weirdly Wintering In August
I've just completed winter. Not actual winter, since it's August and we're in the northern hemisphere, but the chilliest colourway of the four-season cowl design that I'll be publishing shortly. But as I said in my last post, this is a British winter, so discard any notions of sparkly white snow against a blue sky, and instead embrace the dank and soggy undertones of sludgy reality. They're quite pretty once you get used to them. The yarn is Stylecraft Highland Heathers DK. Next up on my Continue Reading
Colour Me Seasonal
Ah hello, my Fine Fibrous Friends. It's good to see you. Yes, you. A confession: I was worried. My previously unquenchable need to knit and to design went AWOL for a while. Seriously, you could have dumped me beside the most magical motifs that Mother Nature has to offer, and instead of thinking I CAN WORK THE INTRICACIES OF THIS SLIME MOULD INTO THE PATTERN FOR A STRANDED DRESS, I'd have shrugged and taken another sip of green tea... or wine, depending on the time of day. Also, I've been Continue Reading
Blogstars On The Beach: A New Pattern
Oh, hello summer. So that's where you were hiding, you sneaky blighter. It feels as though there was scarcely time to take off a cardigan or two between the l-o-n-g cold grey spring we suffered and the sudden onset of superheated summer. But wa-hey sunny weather, look at the isobars on you! And it's a good thing that the sunshine has finally pitched up, because we Stylecraft Blogstars are thinking about heading to the coast. Today sees the launch of Blogstars At The Beach, a celebration of Continue Reading
Better Late Than Never
Hello, my Fine Fibrous Friends. It's been a while, I know. I've missed you, but - glances both ways and whispers - I haven't been knitting very much. Now those are words that I never expected to write for as long as I had a detectable pulse. The main reason was that I was designing and making what I hoped would be a special gift for a dear friend's 50th birthday. Unfortunately progress was glacial because every hour of knitting was followed by about a week-and-a-half of THIS IS RUBBISH AND Continue Reading
Failing In Several Directions
Oh dear. Oh deary deary dear. In a wildly unforeseen development, living with kittens has wrecked my ability to get anything done ever. Both of our youthful murder-muffins would fain spend their whole lives curled up on someone's lap - usually mine. Pinned to the sofa by twin puddles of snoring fluff, my productivity has punched a hole in the floor. The Stoic Spouse and I are both as a rule the kind of people quite welded to our respective to-do lists (and not averse to competing as to Who Is Continue Reading
Redesigning
Hello, my Fine Fibrous Friends. Perhaps that should include my Fine Furry Friends, too:- Lately I've been working on a design for a Stylecraft Blogstars promotion that'll hit a yarn shop or a screen and perhaps even some knitting needles near you this summer. The knitted version is nearly done, and if possible, I'll create a crocheted version too. I'm not allowed to say much about the work in progress, so in the meantime please can we all just indulge my delusions of genius and assume that Continue Reading