It's a controversial opinion, but I think long hot summer days are the best. When you've spent 99% of your life shivering into your knitwear, it's a marvellous luxury to be able to go outdoors - or even indoors - in short sleeves. And then there's the joy of pulling off your cardigan to reveal the wanton nakedness of only a single layer of stocking-stitched merino beneath. Look who's been busy laying eggs in the pond! The problem - in my case - is that it's too tempting to spend every Continue Reading
Party!
I'm back home, after the best - the absolute best - of yarny weekends. If you read this in a breathless, overexcited voice, then you're getting the tone just about right, OK? The weekend was a combination of our usual twice-yearly Stylecraft Blogstars meetup at the mill, and Stylecraft's 30th birthday - aka 'Purl Anniversary' event. And one thing that I can now confidently say is that those folks at Stylecraft certainly know how to throw a party. Mmm, did someone mention cake? No? Well Continue Reading
Here Be Dragons
Every time, EVERY TIME I go outdoors to take a yarn-related picture, some bit of the natural world shows up and diverts my attention. Hello, beautiful. This is M. Dragonfly, who was loitering in the reeds beside the pond, hoping to find a mate... M. Dragonfly WLTM a fellow Common Darter Dragonfly, GSOH and own pond preferred. Please no timewasters or damselflies. Yeeks, is this what this blog has become? A dating site for arthropods? Did you know that (giant) dragonflies were Continue Reading
Crocheted Art
It's never a good idea to leave me unsupervised in a bookshop. Actually, I probably shouldn't be left unsupervised at all, but that's a separate blog post. Yarn shops are OK because I'm that weirdo who isn't into stash, but bookshops are another matter. I certainly shouldn't be allowed in the sort of bookshop that sells this sort of thing:- Both of these were published in 1972* which also happens to be the year of my birth. Please, no comments about which of us has aged better and Continue Reading
Waterside
Please (cough) excuse this (cough, cough) ridiculous, hacking cough (cough), but I've had (c... you get the idea) a chest infection for the past week, and I sound like I got lost in a cigarette factory as it caught fire. There's quite a bit of water in this post, but I'll get to that in a minute. Here's the view from a small rowing boat, under a bridge in Oxford. The second-worst thing about this has been not being able to go running, and the worst thing has been not being able to do much Continue Reading
Back To The Yarn
There I was outdoors, photographing some crochet for this blog post, determined that Robyn-the-robin wasn't going to hijack another post, when guess who zoomed, screeching, past my head demanding food? I didn't manage to get any decent pictures of her this time (she can be standoffish on days when I've selfishly abandoned her to go to work) so here's an eight-second video from the other day. If you follow my Instagram, you'll have seen a similar clip already. Was that a shameless attempt to Continue Reading
May
Despite appearances, this is still a knitting/crochet/running blog. But following your reactions to the last post, I thought that some of you might want to know that this happened with Robyn-the-robin. Repeatedly:- Hello, beautiful. She ate from my hand, too, but I didn't manage to get a picture of that. Sometimes one of the twinnage joins me on the bench waiting quietly for her to arrive, but Robyn is wary of my boys - she stares from the fence as though to say, "Look mate, I've got a Continue Reading
Robyn The Robin
Ever feel as though you're being watched? Well, do you?? I can't even set foot in the garden without Robyn the robin appearing, demanding food (aka demanding I do the weeding, so that she can follow me along the flowerbed, gathering grubs and beetles, and telling me about everything she thinks is wrong with the world). If I don't do what she wants, she flies alarmingly close to my head at a gazillion miles per hour to get my attention. I've been trying to placate her with mealworms Continue Reading
Finishing School
(And yes, there will be more about nålbinding in a future post...) In the meantime, shall we have a book review? Sixth & Spring has just published Finishing School, A Master Class For Knitters, by Deborah Newton. Yes, I was given this book for free, so clearly you can't trust a word I say. But whilst I turn down most of the books I'm offered for review (it's tough, being a yarny blogger), I jumped at this one because it plays to one of my biggest weaknesses. Finishing is not my Continue Reading
Nålbinding
I've been learning nålbinding. (Other spellings are available.) Not familiar with the technique? You're not alone. It's what people did at 'Stitch-And-Bitch' nights thousands of years ago, before they got round to inventing knitting and crochet. (And it's still practiced today in some regions, in addition to enjoying a revival amongst historical re-enactment folk.) But I'll save the history and possibilities of nålbinding for another post. It's been a while since I learned a new Continue Reading