This year’s Stylecraft Blog Tour has been fun so far. If you’ve been following along, you’ll have seen all sorts of pretty knits and hookings, each one designed by one of the Stylecraft Blogstars, and each reflecting its designer’s style and personality.
Clearly my own personality is ‘Woman who likes looking at dead stuff that drops off trees in autumn’. Thank you for your comments about the pattern (available for free, here). For those of you who asked, I’m going to produce it as a pdf so that you can print out the chart. Just give me a few days, OK?
I love how a group of us can take the same yarn, and go sprinting off with it in such utterly different directions. That’s been the most enjoyable thing about this blog tour – looking every morning to see what each person has designed. And of course there’s been the daily giveaways, too. There are still five more days of the blog tour (and five more days to win). Enjoy! And a big thank you to the 2000+ of you who entered the giveaway here. The lucky winner was Pam Stinnett. Congratulations, Pam!
Still to come (at the time of writing): getknottedyarncraft.blogspot.co.uk on the 27th, theknittingexploitsofjosiekitten.blogspot.co.uk on the 28th, crafternoontreats.com on the 29th, thepatchworkheart.co.uk on the 30th, and janiecrow.co.uk on the 31st. Enjoy!
So, yeah. I’m still getting over a chest infection, the only upside of which has been extra guilt-free knitting time. And look: I finished a thing!
This, my friends, is Kari-Helene Rane’s ‘Chelsea’ waistcoat. (You may remember I talked about her designs a while ago.) I love this waistcoat! The yarn is Drops ‘Nepal’.
The pattern is here, in case you’d like to make one. It’s a very easy, quick knit. You can wear it different ways:-
And although it looks complicated, it’s actually extremely simple.
If anyone ever tries to tell you that knitters have no style, go and show them Kari-Helene’s work – that’ll wipe the sneer from their face, I guarantee. There are so many of her designs that I’m planning to knit.
I love the waistcoat so much that I’m even prepared to show you a hasty phone-snap that I took in the mirror this morning. Excuse the weary, getting-over-chest-infection face, but I figured that we’ve known each other for long enough not to hide between makeup when we meet, yeah?
Oh, and speaking of how long we’ve been acquainted, the other thing that’s happened this week is the four-year blogiversary of this site! (OK, you’ll know this already if you frequent the blog’s Instagram or Facebook pages.) Wa-hey! Let there be cake:-
I know I wheel out the same picture every year of the cake with which the Stoic Spouse surprised me on my first blogiversary, but it was a pretty stunning cake. Also, no further blog-related cakes have been forthcoming since that date. <kicks the Stoic Spouse, under the table.> Honestly, anyone would think that he had more important things to tend to in his life than cake.* Oh, wait…
But seriously, I had no idea, back in 2013 when I wrote my first blog post, how life-changing this blogging thing would be. And most of all, I didn’t yet know what a creative, wise, funny, and friendly bunch of people from all over the world would come here and read this blog. Amongst the ‘likes’ and comments, there are names that I recognise who’ve been around since the start, as well as folk who are more recent arrivals. You’re all proper lovely, you know? I love coming here to chatter with you.
And if you’re thinking of starting a blog yourself, I have one small piece of advice: DO IT! (But be prepared for it to take over an alarmingly large part of your life.)
∗It’s always hard to know how you’re coming across online, so just in case anyone reading this thinks that I’m seriously whining because my husband doesn’t commission enough cakes, I wrote that paragraph with my tongue so firmly in cheek that I have an actual hole in the side of my mouth, OK?
Happy happy blogiversary x
Thank you. 🙂
Thank you, and thank you also for being a long-term visitor to this blog.
If you were up for adoption and I didn’t already have a perfectly lovely daughter…well, you get the picture – and besides that we live an ocean apart – but the gist is that a love you! Thanks for being here – your blog brightens every day no matter what is going on in my life. never stop
Gosh thank you – you’re far too kind. 🙂
Always lovely to see a finished thing! Looks great! Happy blogiversary to you, and many more!
Thank you on both counts, lovely fellow blogger. 🙂
Happy blogiversary to you! Wow, I love that cake ????
Thank you! (The cake tasted pretty good, too.)
Happy blogiversary!!
I love all your posts!!
Aww, thank you! 🙂
Happy Blogiversary! I just found you from the Stylecraft blog tour. So happy I have too!
Thank you! And a big woolly welcome to this blog. 🙂
Happy blogiversary… started mine in 2009… but I’m not much of a writer LOL
Yes you are, and you’re even more of a drawer/painter. I will never, ever, get tired of looking at your brilliant paintings.
Happy blogiversary!
This is my first comment – ever, on any blog – , but your very last paragraph prompted me to tell you that I would probably be reading your blog even if I had a yarn allergy, just because of that tongue! Love your style of writing!
Thank you so much, ESPECIALLY as it’s your first ever comment. I appreciate your kindness very, very, much. And I wrote that last sentence of the post because I was worried that someone might take me seriously and think that I was a complete spoiled brat!
Happy Blogiversary! I love the waistcoat. The style of it and the colour Nepal remind me of the Tibetan clothing I saw in Kathmandu in the early 90s.
They were a bit like this https://i.pinimg.com/originals/7b/d0/46/7bd0461612e1a0b0b1de0d80b072b997.jpg
Gosh yes, you’re right! That’s really interesting.
Hi, I’m a newbie to your blogs and love reading what you’ve been up to. I’ve taken up stranded knitting since visiting your website and I’m well and truly hooked. As if I need any more excuses to buy more yarn. And the Stylecraft tour has been a real eye opener – so much talent!
Big health warning: stranded knitting is utterly addictive! But it sounds as though you’ve discovered that already. Welcome to the blog, and thank you for your very kind words.
So glad that you feel comfortable enough in our company that you can appear without your makeup! I’m sure that we can all relate with that ‘getting over something nasty look’ and we send you our love and sympathy and wish you back to full health as soon as you can manage it. Look after yourself, love Sarah x
Thanks Sarah, you’re extremely kind. 🙂
Who needs makeup, you look great! Waistcoats good too! Like the others I found you from the Stylecraft blog tour. I am going to read from the beginning when we have a wet day.
Hope you get over the chest infection soon. Best wishes, Caz
Thank you, on several counts! I hope you’ve enjoyed the rest of the tour, too. Welcome to The Twisted Yarn! 🙂
The waistcoat is beautiful and you make it look fab, with or without make-up! Happy blogiversary 🙂
Thank you!
Happy blogiversary. You put me to shame. Hope you recover very soon – this glorious weather should help.
Thank you, and long may this glorious sunshine continue. 🙂
Happy blogiversary! And I will gladly look at photos of that cake every year – it was fabulous!
Thank you! (And I seem to remember that it tasted pretty good, too…)
Hello I’ve queued the lovely top mentioned in the blog. Thank you xx Did you put button holes on when the pattern used press studs? (I’m not sure) if so can you let me know where you inserted the button holes? X thanks X
Hi Elizabeth. I cheated (slightly), by adding little crochet-chain loops at the end, so I can insert the buttons through these. Easier than making button holes! It seems to have worked well, but I might need to add a third one in the middle.
Thank you! Happy Blogiverservary xx