Proof that the universe has a fine sense of humour: just as my yarnthusiasm returns, I damage my hand by over-eager wool-tugging between DPNs. Yeah thanks, universe - feel free to stop chuckling now. It's quite ouchy, but I've switched to knitting continental-style in order to give my right hand a break. I've been working on this new design for way too many weeks. When this thing is done, it'll be... I dunno, maybe twenty thousand stitches or so? But m-a-n-y times that number have gone 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
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
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
Springy
As seasons go - and man, do they go fast for those of us on the less popular side of 40 - spring has a lot to recommend it. The very best thing is that nature stops hiding its colourful light under a damp, grey, bushel, and comes out to frolic. Look at these beautiful snakeshead fritillaries! It's trickier than usual to be miserable when there's so much new life around, such as the bottle-fed lambs in the twinnage's friend's garden. Meet Alfie. Alfie is trouble. But Alfie Continue Reading
Winter Colours
There is knitting in this post I promise, but there's also lots of winter colour because if you're anything like me, you find the natural world and the landscape endlessly fascinating and inspiring. (And if you're not anything like me, then congratulations on being such a well-adjusted member of society.) Those eleventy hundred bulbs I planted in the autumn are beginning to reveal themselves and I can't resist showing you a few:- Judging by the green fronds poking up all over the Continue Reading
Outdoors Inspiration
I was browsing Facebook the other evening, when I came across this post by Koliber Anna Droździoł. Freeform crochet landscape dresses. How beautiful?! She's done a stupendously brilliant job. I love the exuberance, the colours, the technical skill, everything about this. (Also, I would so wear this.) It got me thinking, and now I'm wondering whether I should make a dress or a skirt based on the landscape around here in Oxfordshire. If you've been here for any longer than it takes the twinnage Continue Reading
Pondlife
May I show you something? It's not yarn-related, but I do plan to spend a lot of time beside it knitting and crocheting. You see, I'm making progress on the wildlife pond. It's nowhere near done, but I've finished digging, and it does at least now contain WATER. One day soon, the edges will be concealed, the lawn will be re-turfed, more rocks will be added, and most importantly, some coir mats will arrive (from these marvellous folk), pre-planted with native water-loving vegetation. Then, this Continue Reading
Alpaca Fluff
Warning: this post contains alpaca fleece of an exceptionally fluffsome, gorgeous, nature. In extreme cases, it may trigger the urge to abandon your responsibilities and run off to cuddle the nearest alpaca. Please proceed with caution. I know I've been quiet lately. This past week, my silence has been due to a family holiday in a cottage way down south west, in Cornwall. Actually it wasn't a cottage, it was one wing of a beautiful old manor house, with a garden - nay, grounds - that looked Continue Reading