There's nothing like being halfway through a simple project to make me want to knit something complicated, and there's nothing like swearing my way through designing a complicated skirt to make me want to create something really simple. Here's the skirt in two different colourways. It's for the book, so I can't show you any more detail just now. I've been picking at the details of this stranded skirt design for so many weeks that I'm starting to see the world around me in terms of how Continue Reading
The Twisted Future
(I drafted this post before anti-racist protests in the USA and then here in the UK unfolded. But see bottom of the page for my position on the matter.) I have knitting, and the twinnage have running-around-pretending-to-be-gazelles-space. Both of these things are good. What you can't see in this picture is that it's just beginning to chuck it down with rain and none of us has thought to bring a coat. If I ever become a grandmother, one day way ahead in the future, I shall tell my Continue Reading
A Token Effort
To continue where the previous post left off, I'm now grafting chunks of skirt back together using the kitchener stitch because hey, I like to laugh in the face of potential knitpocalyse. It's not a quick process, partly because of frequent interruptions by Robyn-the-robin tapping on the window for more mealworms... or a passing twin asking, "Mummy, do birds have tongues?" or "Can you hear electricity?" or "When's lunch?" At least Robyn is able to answer one of those Continue Reading
Colours Behaving Badly
Colours are like children. You learn, for example, never to leave young Cedric alone with little Jessica, because they won't play nicely unless maybe you've also got sweet Timmy there to provide a soothing influence on both of them. That greenish colour? It's the same in both photos, but in the nearer sample it looks almost blue. But things can turn unpredictable in a heartbeat. Dear Hieronymus and Maud are usually a delightful combination, but add Bob into the mix and - WHAM! - all three Continue Reading
Locked Down But Not Out
The trouble with being home so much is that I'm a sitting target for anyone who wants food. And suddenly, it seems as though everyone wants food, all the time. Since it's Easter, I made simnel cake. My apostles have no concept of social distancing. In other news, home-made marzipan is the BEST! Indoors, the twinnage want a snack. The answer is mostly 'no' because we're being cautious with our supplies. Also they had a stonking big lunch about three seconds ago. So I offer them a lecture Continue Reading
Keep On Yarning
Hello. :-) Knitting, sunshine, and green tea. What you can't see is Robyn-the-robin in the apple tree beside me, demanding her 14th (or is it 15th?) lunch of the day. Thank you, my fine fibrous friends, for your heartwarming comments in response to the self-care post, including the many from people who are new around here. (Welcome, do come in and please excuse the mess.) I started replying to each comment, but they number in the hundreds, and I'm not sure I can write a sensible response Continue Reading
You Can Do This. Yes, You.
Morning all. Right, before we go any further, a quick announcement. I've just made all of my patterns free (using the code ANTIVIRAL at the checkout) because it doesn't feel right to take money whilst people are losing their livelihoods. You can find the patterns here. Most of my designs were free anyway, but for now, they all are. Robyn-the-robin says hi. She couldn't care less about the coronavirus, as long as she gets her mealworms. Anyway, to the subject of today's post. I don't Continue Reading
Clothes For Vegetables
Meet the leek-cosy. It's knitted in a 2x2 rib using Stylecraft's 'Life Changes' yarn. (Yes, that's a portion of twinnage outside in the background.) Oi, stop laughing about this terribly serious matter! There really is a good reason for this. Allow me to explain... Being someone who wastes far too much time nosing into oddball corners of the internet - peering into its cupboards, opening the occasional drawer - I come across all sorts of things. On nights when I can't sleep, it Continue Reading
Hair
Today's thesis: it's amazing how many hair products are also useful in knitting. No seriously, hear me out. I posted a tip on Instagram about using elasticated hairbands to secure your circular needles when your knitting is squished into the bottom of your handbag. As your knit-in-progress languishes down there in the dark, stitches slip from the needles amongst the till receipts, samples of oolitic limestone, and tulip bulbs. (What? Why are you looking at me like that?!) I bought a Continue Reading
Progress, Of Sorts
Many thanks, you ridiculously lovely lot, for every single one of your kind words about my book deal. And if I've been quiet since the announcement, it's because I've been busy designing and writing. I'm breaking the habit of a lifetime by working hard from the outset, instead of leaving the task until 10pm on the night before it's due. Trust me when I say that this is deeply unfamiliar behavioural territory. I'm running quite a bit, too (twenty miles per week), which is helping to keep Continue Reading