So, I'm embroidering and crocheting the garden of the big furniture-related crochet house project, when I really ought to be doing proper useful stuff. The fire is lit already because it's been one of those grey, drizzly mornings that makes you think, "Really? Do I have to get up and adult today? Again?" I decided to build a rockery around the pond. First, I made some rocks in subtly variegated grey yarn, by single-crocheting (that's double crochet in UK parlance) with strategic increases and Continue Reading
Archives for November 2015
Blogging
It’s a rum ol’ game, this blogging. Putting yourself out there, (selected) warts and all, but also holding back a little. Every blogger has their own limits regarding what they’re prepared to share and what they keep private, and unless I missed the memo (entirely possible – I miss a lot of memos, including the one that says your sentences shouldn’t be nine clauses long), nobody has yet figured out the definitive answer about exactly how open a blogger should be. (Disclaimer: the photos in Continue Reading
English Landscape In Yarn
I've been quiet these past few days because the cough/lurgy descended even further into Dickensian melodrama, whilst I descended deeper amongst the sofa cushions. The one thing I did do was attend Blogfest in London, but I'll leave that for the next post, because I promised you pictures of the finished Cladonia. Look! The Burrow and Soar yarn is beautiful, and was a delight to knit. The main colourway that I used for the non-lace section was named 'English Landscape In Yarn', which rather Continue Reading
Washing And Blocking
So this post is coming to you from the sofa, where I've spent much of the past couple of days aching all over and hacking a cough that could've come right out of a Dickens novel. (Melodramatic, moi?) I do seem to be throwing these lurgies off more quickly since I began the four-times-a-week-running torture though, so I hope this thing will be gone soon, because it's no fun feeling too ill to knit. (Also it's no fun running four times per week, so I'd hate to think that it wasn't serving any Continue Reading
And Then We Were Eight
Eight years ago today, I put on an asymmetric, teal-coloured, gown and walked down the aisle in order to promise lifelong, grudgingly-unswerving tolerance of the Stoic Spouse's* quirks. And vice versa of course, though naturally my own quirks are charming and endearing rather than FLIPPIN' ANNOYING.** Fast-forward getting-on-for-a-decade and we're still here, and neither of us has yet eviscerated the other with the antique brass fire tongs. Pretty good, huh? But on the anniversary of our Continue Reading
The New Gaff
Oops! Mind those boxes, there. Unpacking is a work in progress. It's strange, moving into a new place. Even though you know that soon its every detail will be as familiar as your own hands, there's a period of adjustment whilst you're learning its smells, its proportions, its light, and the fact that you have to yank the bathroom window handle slightly to the left in order to open it. No, I haven't physically moved house. I still live in the oldest, coldest, quirkiest, roof-leakiest, converted Continue Reading
Lost In The Ether
OK, this is a quick one, because I know you're busy. And it's sort of an admin post, just like when you go to a training event and they tell you at the beginning where the fire exits are, and ask how long a lunch break you'd like, at which point everyone opts for a short lunch so that they can go home early. I'm trying to knit whilst typing, so please do excuse any errors. So, tomorrow-ish, some serious backstage shenanigans will be happening on this site. (For those with an Continue Reading
Comfort-Yarning
Knitting and crochet are like food for the soul. Just like real food, they can satisfy, intrigue, nourish, challenge, and comfort. And just like with food, you can crave different things when in different moods. I've been plugging away at designing the big-secret-crochet-house-project (which is n-e-a-r-l-y finished), but tonight, forget all that: I need simple, warm, comfort-knitting. And I need somebody else's pattern, so that I don't have to think too much. So I'm back on my other project: Continue Reading
Autumn Outdoors
It's a satisfying time of year to be outdoors, clearing away a season's-worth of overgrown undergrowth whilst it's still mild enough to work unencumbered by eight layers of clothing. Also the colours, of course. Ah, the colours:- Many times before, I've mentioned this village's long cherry-growing heritage, and now the few remaining cherry orchards are in their autumn livery. I'd been feeling guilty about 'growing' yarn vegetables in the garden of my big-crochet-house-project whilst Continue Reading