Would you like a new pattern? Yes? OK then, read on... Twice a year, I head up to Stylecraft's mill in Slaithwaite, West Yorkshire, with the other Blogstars. In between gossip, trips out, wine, and knitting, we get to see the new yarns that Stylecraft will launch over the coming months. (Did I mention the brutally tough, lonely, life of a knit-blogger?) Back in February when we last visited, the yarn that caught our attention the most was Linen Drape, the DK-weight linen-viscose blend that I Continue Reading
Linen Drape, A Mini-Review
Well goodness me! Based on your reactions, anyone would think my last post was a joke, instead of the Terribly Serious Piece Of Journalism that it actually was. But thank you for all the acryla-love. Maisie says hi. (It turns out that acrylas can get addictive. You know that phenomenon where people tell a lie so consistently that they start to believe it themselves? Meanwhile, thank you again to Jo Ray for making this gorgeous beast.) Anyway, enough about the serious matter of Continue Reading
Ever Wondered About That Acrylic Yarn In Your Stash?
Well good morning, and welcome to April. How much do you know about acrylic yarn? Personally, I know lots about wool, alpaca, cotton, and even qiviut, but other than a vague awareness that acrylic fibre has some connection to plastic, I’m a bit clueless… or at least, I was. So for this blog post – and I warn you, it’s a long'un – I set out to learn more about the production of acrylic, to interview those involved, and to photograph the experience along the way. Want to come along for the ride? Continue Reading
A Free Scarf Pattern!
I have a free scarf pattern for you, ably modelled by my headless friend:- But first, may I briefly direct your attention to the TV? That's not a sentence that I write very often (I don't even own a television). But tonight, my chair and I are appearing on the BBC programme, 'Make'. The (brief) interview was filmed last October, and I blogged about it here. (And I blogged about the chair here, in case you're curious.) The programme will be on BBC4 at 9pm UK-time tonight. Given my lack of Continue Reading
Getting To The Bottom Of The Matter
Are we all here? Yes? Well good evening, and thank you for coming at such short notice. I just thought it would be a good idea to have a blog post updating you on various bits and pieces that I've mentioned recently. It's a pretty full agenda, so assuming you're all settled with your knitting or crochet, let's get going. First on the agenda is the naming of the spinning wheel. A big thank you to all 247 people who voted. And as per the outcome, may I proudly present Monsieur Algernon Spinburne, Continue Reading
A Knitted Skirt
I ought to tell you about my knitted skirt, because every time it sneaks into a photo, somebody asks about it. OK, this one wasn't so much of a 'sneak', as a 'pose':- Because I wear it so much, it sometimes makes an appearance in photos here, or over on my Instagram, or Facebook, or Pinterest pages. (Yes I did just plug my social media pages, in the hope that you'd hop over there and subscribe. I really am that shameless.) And whilst it would be an exaggeration to shout OMG YOU GUYZ, LIKE Continue Reading
Labels For Your Yarnery: A Review And A Discount
For those who've never tried it, I have to tell you: blogging is mostly fun. The very best thing about it is that you get to chatter online with likeminded folk. A smaller benefit is that sometimes, you're offered free things to review. Mostly this is stuff that's relevant to your readership but you do occasionally have to write emails saying, "Thank you, but I'm not sure your drain clearance products would be of very much interest to readers of my knitting and crochet blog". (It irks the Stoic Continue Reading
A Finished Thing
This week, I finished a thing. Is it just me, or does everyone have a Guilt Project languishing in a basket somewhere? I'm talking about the mega-project that seemed like a r-e-a-l-l-y good idea several years ago when you bought/inherited/spun-from-raw-antelope-fibre the 80 balls of yarn that it requires. The Guilt Project is always three quarters complete - you've come too far to frog it - and it nudges you into a flicker of shame every time you trip over it on your way to the wine-rack Continue Reading
Standing Up.
My father-in-law is not a man to idle away his retirement years alphabetising his sock drawer or polishing the cat. In fact, he spent the first part of his 'retirement' (I use the word loosely) teaching part-time at the roughest school in his area, where one's ability to teach was secondary to one's skill in crowd-control. As a result, he became master of the withering one-liner, for when those nine-foot-tall, hormonal, teens tried giving him jip. The meanest class bully soon learned not to push Continue Reading
Yeah, Just Some Pictures Of Oxfordshire That I Knitted.
Want to see some knitted pictures of the Oxfordshire landscape? Those of you who've been here for so long that the seat of your chair has moulded itself to the shape of your perfectly-proportioned posterior may remember this post. Executive summary: I set off around south Oxfordshire in search of the perfect view to photograph for a yarn-related project, and ended up finding a door that may - or may not - have been the portal to another dimension. Anyway. The project in question was this: I Continue Reading