Almost-autumn is here. The twinnage returned to school last week, with all the swagger that a matching pair of eight-year-olds in a small village school can muster. (Trust me, that's quite a lot of swagger.) Meanwhile here is a cormorant, having a scratch. The days are cooler, and no evening is complete until somebody has said "I can't believe it's dark already. Look! Look how dark it is! Just look, will you?!" Isn't it a beauty? It's been a low-achieving couple of months. Last Continue Reading
Soon
We're starting to see the odd teaser for Season Three (autumn) of 2019. It's surprisingly cool here this morning, and I'm wearing an actual jumper. Confession: I bought rather than knitted it, and one of the twinnage would like me to make him one, but I'm puzzled by what the stitch might be. Here's the front (left) and reverse (right). Any thoughts please, wise yarn-lovers? I'd love to oblige him by making one, especially as I fear we're reaching the end of the Mum-is-cool years, and fast Continue Reading
Summer
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
Yarn Shop Day
Writing funny blog posts is tricky when things go well. It's easier when your day turns belly-up and you leave your dignity somewhere up a tree in the supermarket car park, but there's nothing hilarious about things working out as intended. That's why I'm finding it hard to write this post about Saturday's Yarn Shop Day event. I can just about work a World War Two air raid shelter and a Victorian actress's underwear into the story without stretching the truth, but beyond that, I got Continue Reading
Nuts And Bolts
Hello! Do come and sit here beside the fire. I have much yarnery to share with you. (But the latest Stylecraft Blogstars weekend shenanigans should probably wait until next post.) Meanwhile in response to a dozen or so requests, I promised a post about how I went about designing this thing:- So here goes. I've written before (five years ago! Oh, for the youthful naivety of being 41!) about designing stranded motifs. But this 123 500 - stitch behemoth made its own rules. Just as I write Continue Reading
Millionaire
That title is misleading. I'm not really a millionaire, although I did just find a bar of chocolate that I'd forgotten about so I am feeling pretty fortunate. (I sometimes hide chocolate away from the Twinnage, and the advantage/disadvantage of having a rubbish memory is that I then promptly forget it ever existed.) But the title of this post is because recently, my blog visit stats passed the million mark. Those visits can't all have been by my mum, surely? A million! That's quite a big number. Continue Reading
A Thing
I've finished knitting a thing. It's a big thing. 110cm (43") square, to be precise. You're looking at 123 500 stitches which, it's fair to say, took a good while to complete. It's made of Jamieson's of Shetland Spindrift, and it weighs in at 500 grams. That's a kilometre of yarn. It was knitted in the round with a steek, which I then cut. (Steeks aren't as scary as folk think, I promise. Here's a quick how-to.) I used 3mm needles for the stranded work, then 2.5mm needles for the Continue Reading
Frogging The Frog
The other morning, I picked up my knitting (nothing unusual in that), muttered some words that aren't repeatable here (not as rare as it should be), and frogged FOURTEEN THOUSAND stitches of stranded colourwork. (Youch.) I even frogged this little diving frog. (But forgot to photograph it first, so this is the reknitted version.) I tried to film the experience in a speeded-up, time-lapsy, sort of way, but technology was against me. So then I went off to do my tax return Continue Reading
Winter. With Yarn.
Hello, dear knitters and crocheters, and runners, and my mum, and people who inexplicably landed here whilst searching for a blog about oxyacetylene welding. Come and sit with me beside the fire, because it's way too cold out there. Walking to school to collect the twinnage this afternoon, it looked as though somebody had combed the sky. I hope you've brought your yarn. (No, please don't start oxyacetylene welding in my sitting room. The blog you're looking for is that way. --> Continue Reading