It began with a postcard. I've always loved the traditional Penguin paperback covers, and I have a lovely box of postcards of some of the old covers, and often choose one to include in parcels or notes to friends. (It's getting tricky though, now I've used up the uncontroversial ones. I always find the most deeply inappropriate cards when I'm looking - I suspect that sending Woolf's A Room Of One's Own with a birthday gift to a divorcing friend would not be clever, nor would sending De Vries' Continue Reading
Archives for November 2014
More Unfeasibly Easy-To-Knit Christmas Decorations
Hmm, I never expected this knitting blog to embrace Christmas quite so enthusiastically (we're talking kisses-on-both-cheeks-and-a-hug levels of enthusiasm, right now). But here is the third and last of my posts on ridiculously easy-to-knit Christmas decorations. And just to reassure all those tinsel-deniers out there, I'll be back to normal by next post. Continuing in the vein of festive decorative knits for beginners and children, and those who just want their decorative makes to be Continue Reading
Knitted Father Christmas
What? What? More Christmas makes? Well... yes. Because now that the TheTwistedYarn has turned on the festive ideas tap, it just won't stop dripping. Somebody call a plumber. So, assuming that the easy-to-knit Christmas trees were on the favourable side of tolerable, here's another easy decorative knit for Christmas. I'm deliberately creating the simplest, most beginner-oriented designs, involving nowt more taxing than a garter stitch square. And in case even that sounds daunting to complete Continue Reading
Knitted Christmas Trees
Right, people. Just this once, I'm going to break the habit of a lifetime, and mention Christmas before mid-December. This really doesn't fit with my miserable, curmudgeonly ol' personality, but I have things to show you, pretty Christmassy things, and they won't wait. Also, we normally have nine of us gathering here at our old brewery for Christmas, and my lack of prior festive organisation is impressing no-one. So. Decorations. What are yours like? Obviously, you need some knitted or Continue Reading
Knit Faster! Knit Faster!
Ever felt as though you need to learn how to knit faster? Those afghans and skirts and scarves won't finish themselves, y'know. Yes yes, I realize we're doing this for fun not efficiency, but I've got so many pattern ideas - and so many of other people's patterns - fizzing around in my head, and I want to knit/crochet them all, right now. Stamps foot, petulantly. Tell me that I'm not alone? Just for context, I've always been an English-style knitter of the most inefficient kind, shamefully Continue Reading
The Crochet-Meets-Knitting Bag Pattern
Do you want to hear a story of some slight craziness? It is about knitting and crochet, honest. Yes? Well settle your good self on the sofa there, (oops, mind that Lego) and I'll tell you. Green tea, anyone? So, to stretch a short story long, yesterday was Mumsnet Blogfest in London, a rather fabulous annual celebration of blogging, with plenty of feisty independent thinkers/writers, plus an abundance of laughter, swearing, cake, and unlimited free gin. People I tell you, it's like coming Continue Reading
Scrawlin’ The Scrawl
Hunched up against the howling autumn gales, I've been knitting. A lot. This will come as a surprise to absolutely nobody who knows me at all. I've been keeping one project semi-secret until now, because I'm writing up the pattern for you, and because I'll probably initially be putting the blimmin' thing 'out there' via a guest post I've got coming up soon on the Deramores blog. (But don't disappear: the free pattern will also appear here, too.) Anyway, the idea came from a simple Continue Reading