Sometimes, you just need a mindless comfort-knit. This fellow is going to be a cardigan, worked in 'Nepal', a wool-alpaca blend by Drops:- What I was too ashamed to tell you in my last post when I showed you this lovely new yarn I'd bought... ...was that in a moment of financial insanity, I actually bought three different bundles of yarn, to make three different cardigans. (I'm always cold. As is this house. The cardigans will at least get a great deal of wear.) The Drops Nepal is well on Continue Reading
I Fought The Yarn… And The Yarn Won.
See this blog? It should probably be renamed the Don't Try This At Home blog. Because whether it's knitting, crochet, running, or general adulting, these pages sometimes feel like a catalogue of mild inadequacy. That baby blanket I mentioned last post? Well I knitted my portion, and all was good... or at least as good as you can expect for a blanket knitted by three different people using three completely different kinds of stitches. Let's call it... unique (but it is plenty snuggly enough for Continue Reading
A Tale Of The Unexpected
Did you know that llama pregnancies last for 11 months? That's probably not a whole load of fun for the mummy llamas, but it does at least give their friends an additional 2 months over humans in which to get something knitted. Image credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/glenbowman/7354881078 I need to make friends with some llamas. The reason for this is that despite the fact that a friend has been pregnant for nine months and I have arguably had plenty of time to get knitting... Continue Reading
SereKNITy: A Review And A Giveaway
Morning, all. Shall we have another giveaway-review whilst I put the finishing touches to the cowl pattern? Yes? There’s a new book that may well be right up your street. Or it might not. Hopefully after this review, you’ll know either way.* Introducing the quirkily-monikered Sereknity, by Nikki Van De Car, published just this week by Running Press. And if you’re thinking, ‘Hang on, I definitely know that name from somewhere’, I’ll save you the brow-furrowing by reminding you that Van De Continue Reading
Free Pattern Alert! The Cowl Is Done!
I've been in a bit of a frenzy to finish designing and making the fiery sunset cowl, since so many of you said such kind things about it. I knitted round, and round, and round, so very fast that I was almost flung backwards across the room by the centrifugal forces. Anyway. It's done. And I've typed up the pattern for you. But first, a message. Mother Twisted was enormously touched by all your lovely comments about her cathedral window quilting, and she sends you heartfelt thanks. I think Continue Reading
Knitting A Fiery Sky
Hello. There's a stretch of motorway that I drive often. If it's dusk and there's a half-decent sunset, the view is stunning, with sharp conifers and rolling hills silhouetted against the sky. Often, I see deer. I've long wanted to show you this view because I know you like colour, but stopping on a motorway to whip out my camera would be both illegal and stupid, so it hasn't been possible. But then something happened that meant I could at last show you... in knitting! Because look what Continue Reading
Technology
Technology and I have had a little falling out. The laptop in this house knows full well that I'm a pen-and-paper lass at heart, and so it taunts me with nonsense such as "The file you've been working on for three hours without even so much as a loo-break is no longer available". You can't go wrong with pen-and-paper, though. I even draft this blog on paper:- I like to design stranded/fair isle motifs on paper, too, but then I have to type them up. And that was the origin of the problem Continue Reading
Prym Ergonomics Review
Sometimes an opportunity comes along at just the right moment. Having posted the other day about visiting the Knitting and Crochet Guild archive, I was thinking a lot about the historical changes – or rather, lack of changes – in the tools that we use to work our yarn. And right when I was pondering the matter, the German company Prym contacted me to say, “S’cuse me Twisted, we’ve just revolutionized the design of the knitting needle. Would you care to take a nosey?” Obviously, I said Continue Reading
Fancy Another Free Pattern?
Fancy another free pattern? Yes? OK, but before I reveal all, may I just thank you from the very bottom left corner of my heart for the generous comments that you left regarding the chair. However, I am deeply aggrieved that you've all sided with Stoic Spouse about whether or not anyone should sit in the thing. The twinnage certainly can't be kept away. Here's one young man and his car park:- In all the excitement of the chair, I didn't get a chance to tell you about another project - one Continue Reading
Finished Object!
New year is a funny ol' time, and I realize that folk have wildly different feelings about it. If you're one of those ultra-sorted people who takes their life to the existential gym five times a week for a thorough workout, and you're ticking those life goals off the list faster than the ink will flow from your pen, then I'm sure you're just fine-and-dandy on New Year's Eve, and are up at midnight singing Auld Lang Syne with the best of 'em. (Maybe you even know all the words.) But if life Continue Reading