Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Saltaire. This West Yorkshire village is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and home to an awesome art gallery at the former textile factory, Salts Mill. Like colour? You're going to love this. I'd never been to Saltaire, but the folk at Stylecraft organised a visit as part of our recent Blogstars meetup. We arranged to meet at the mill, specifically at the 1853 gallery, which is home to a large collection of David Hockney's artworks. See? I told you this post Continue Reading
Unaccustomed As I Am…
It was very difficult getting to sleep the other night. I was preparing for bed and had just cleaned my teeth (every single one of the flippin' blighters - they were so clean that I could've eaten my dinner off 'em), and I was contemplating moving the various small children who'd somehow ended up in the bed. The Stoic Spouse was asleep. Being a 21st century sort of a lass, I checked my phone one last time. There was a congratulatory text from a close friend... something about an Continue Reading
Stylecraft Blogstars Meetup, aka Not Too Shabby A Weekend
It's much easier to write blog posts when things are going wrong, or when nothing much has happened. Comic anecdotes come more readily when you've mistakenly put your husband out for collection with the recycling, or when you've spent an insomniac half-night pondering a mysterious chicken-shaped splodge on the bedroom ceiling. Unfortunately,* things have gone catastrophically well this weekend... which was immensely fun to experience, but isn't very funny to describe. I have lovely Continue Reading
Better-Than-Average Week
You know how it can be. Some weeks are good, whilst other weeks could be held up as case studies in a presentation on How Not To Succeed At Adulting. Or Life. Or Anything, Really. Believe me, I've had plenty of the latter. Thus far, this week is shaping up rather well, although I realize that the mere act of typing those words will set cosmic cogs in motion to mess that up most mightily. Consequently my entire family probably is, as you read this, being devoured by giant mutant snails that Continue Reading
That Was The Year That Was
Yesterday when I got home from work, one of the twins said "Mummy, I saw a grown-up cry today!" This had obviously made a big impression. I don't think he's witnessed adult tears before. Questioning revealed that the Stoic Spouse - who'd been looking after the boys all day - had taken them a few miles away to the village of Goring, where in the course of running some errands they'd walked past George Michael's house, in which he died (far too young) last week. Outside his home was a sea of Continue Reading
The Best Knitting Blogs (IMHO)
The best knitting blogs out there are marvels of inspiration and wit.* Ditto the best crochet blogs of course, but today’s post is unashamedly needle-biased. So whilst we sit here stitching beside the fire, I hope you don’t mind if I show you a few sites that you may or may not have seen before. If you’re a hooker and not a needler, do stick around because regardless of which side of the yarn fence you pitch your tent, there are some mightily inspiring knitting-related words and pictures out Continue Reading
Over To You
On Sunday, this blog quietly turned three, which gives me an OK-ish excuse to wheel out pictures of the cake that the Stoic Spouse secretly had commissioned ahead of this site's first blogiversary, in 2014. (Way back in the mists of time, he also proposed via a cake. Are you spotting a theme in this man's primary means of communication? If he ever decides to ditch me, it'll probably be via an 'I want a divorce' cake.) The blogiversary cake was large, and rather delicious. I wish I could have Continue Reading
It’s Not A Popularity Contest! Oh, Wait, Actually It Is…
Hello blog. Just a short one today. Thank you for all the kind comments that you've left lately, you lovely yarny lot. On Sunday, this blog will be three years old. Three! I can scarcely believe it. In my experience, three-year-olds are obstreperous and independent little spirits, prone to embarking on unhinged adventures and removing all of their clothes on a whim. So read here at your peril. Talking of the blog, I discovered by chance the other day that I've been shortlisted for the British Continue Reading
Blogstars
Last weekend I was in West Yorkshire at the invitation of Stylecraft. The occasion was the inaugural meeting of their 'Blogstars' programme, in which a dozen of us yarny bloggers/designers get the chance to work closely with Stylecraft and hear whispers about new yarns that are on their way. (Clue: there are some very interesting and unexpected developments afoot.) They kindly asked me to take part. 'Would you like to come up to the picturesque valleys of West Yorkshire, tour our old woollen Continue Reading
Wobbly Blog Is No Longer Wobbly
Never work with children or animals, they say. I'd add technology: never work with technology... except for the fact that you can't avoid the stuff. It's great when it's doing what it should: I have a gadget strapped to my wrist that buzzes and shouts MOVE! if I've been sitting still for longer than is healthy - this thing is a little like my husband, reproduced in electronic form. But I'm sorry to report that we've had a wobble here at TTY that made it impossible for people to comment/like Continue Reading