PREVIOUSLY, ON THE TWISTED YARN... the Stylecraft Blogstars began their twice-yearly meetup in West Yorkshire with a visit to the textiles department at Huddersfield University. Afterwards, we headed to our hotel. Everyone else was probably thinking terribly sensible, grown-up thoughts, but my mind was full of SNOW! SNOW! SQUEEE! Granted, it wasn't much, but the following morning it snowed a little more, and the needle on my over-excitement dial spun so far out of control that centrifugal Continue Reading
Meeting The Knitwear Designers Of Tomorrow
The latest Blogstars meetup at Stylecraft's Yorkshire mill happened last weekend. In my hazardously overactive imagination, you were all there with me because frankly, you'd've loved it. It was a weekend filled with yarn, and laughter, and creativity, with a side order of snowy hills, and a few glasses of wine. This pretty much achieves 'bingo' on my list of favourite things. Let's take it from the top. On Friday morning, I waved goodbye to the twinnage and the stoic spouse, loaded up the car Continue Reading
Out Of My Comfort Zone And Into A Studio
Can you hear that? Listen! Silence... complete and blissful silence. Ah, bliss. I'm sitting in a hotel room in West Yorkshire, overlooking this view:- There's even a little bit of snow! Yup, it's the beginning of another Stylecraft Blogstars weekend (previous shenanigans here, here, here, here, here, here, and here). I have much to share with you about the weekend already, but that will have to come in a separate post. For now, let's catch up on the last few days. Let's begin with some Continue Reading
Many, Many, Names
Wow, you're a creatively generous lot! When I asked for name suggestions for my spinning wheel, I imagined there'd be two or three ideas, and we could have a little poll. I was very, very, wrong. You came up with 103 different names. One hundred and three! Some of them were posted here, some arrived via the blog's Instagram page. (Not subscribed yet? You so should. I can't quite promise that it'll change your life, but I'm working on it.) I loved the thoughts and explanations that came with the Continue Reading
Meet… Um… Well, Therein Lies The Problem.
One evening recently, a good friend of mine popped over. When I say 'popped over', you need to understand that both she and I are knitters/crocheters, so there is no version of 'popping over' that ends quickly or without a drink, a gossip, and a spot of knitting. It was good to see her. (I'm sure you two would like each other if you met.) Amongst several reasons for her visit, she wanted to meet the new addition to our household. Look! This beauty was a joint birthday-Christmas gift from Continue Reading
Ahem.
For better or worse, it's fair to say that I am very British. I queue like a pro, I'm sometimes jolly in the face of adversity, I would rather gnaw my own arm off than discuss money, and if I murmur that I'm 'slightly dismayed' by something then what I really mean is that 'THE SHEER AWFULNESS OF THIS THING FILLS ME WITH BURNING RAGE!' In the hope of uncovering some more interesting heritage, I did one of those ethnicity DNA tests recently, wondering whether I'd uncover roots in Senegal, or Continue Reading
Free Hat Pattern!
Hello, you fine, fibrous folk. Would you like a free pattern, for the hat that I designed for Mother Twisted? The pattern is only one-size, I'm afraid, but it's a fairly forgiving beast, and if you're a medium-to-large-headed adult, then this thing will fit you. Have fun, and do let me know if there are any problems with the pattern. It's knitted in the round with a bit of stranded work, and it knits up surprisingly quickly. (Well, it surprised me anyway, but then, I absolutely jumped out of Continue Reading
Design Your Own Crochet Projects: A Book Review
Evening, all. Is that seat taken? May I? Thank you. So, whilst I write up a couple of patterns for you, let's have a book review. A while ago, I was having a silent grumble in my head about how there seem to be fewer books on crochet pattern-design/writing than there are knitting-related equivalents. To be fair, there are a lot of silent grumbles in my head, most of which should get a grip and definitely remain silent, because they're about such weighty problems as, "Why-oh-why is that ball Continue Reading
Another Year
Well hello, 2018. Are you going to play nice? I've been really enjoying reading people's new year posts, so I thought I'd add my own to the mix. But first, HAPPY NEW YEAR to your good self. May 2018 bring you laughter, health, and startlingly beautiful yarn. May you never drop a stitch and may you always achieve gauge on the very first attempt. 2017 was quite good to us, here at Twisted Towers. (We've certainly had tougher years.) There's been a new - and much more rewarding - job for me, Continue Reading
The Hat
Some time ago, Mother Twisted (my mum) asked me to knit her a hat for Christmas. If you type the word 'hat' into the knit part of the Ravelry pattern database, you'll get 68 624 alternatives. Yes, that is the real number. You might think that's a lot, but we Twisteds are fussy blighters, and I wasn't very optimistic that we'd find the right pattern amongst such a small collection. My pessimism was justified, and all 68 624 were rejected, lovely though most of them were. So I realized that I'd Continue Reading