Florence. You've (possibly) visited the city, you've seen the photos, now knit the cushion! But more on that in a minute. Here in southern Britain, it's been raining since... well actually I can't remember when this wretched rain began. Last month? Last decade? The Pleistocene epoch? Who knows. The landscape is grey and soggy. Gazing out of the window is not an uplifting experience, unless you're inspired by sludge. Every time I go for a run, I'm not so much running as dancing, in Continue Reading
Winging It
First of all, THANK YOU for your enthusiastic participation in the It's A Stitch-Up giveaway. We had 631 entries across the various platforms in less than 48 hours! Winners* have been notified, and prizes are on their way. Huge thanks to Suzie at It's A Stitch-Up for offering such generous prizes. (Meanwhile, it's pretty out there.) And whilst all that was going on, I finished knitting a thing. It came out reasonably non-dreadfully, given that I made it up as I went along with pretty much Continue Reading
The ‘October’ Cushion Pattern And The Stylecraft Blog Tour Yarn Giveaway: Hurrah!
Good morning all, especially to those of you who are here for the first time because you're following along with the 2017 Stylecraft Blog Tour. Welcome! Feel free to stay awhile, have a poke around, and make yourself at home. (You may even sit on The Chair.) And yes, this post will include both a brand new free pattern, and the chance to win oodles of yarn, regardless of where in the world you call home. GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED. So. Very, very, late last night, the Stylecraft Blog Tour Bus pulled Continue Reading
Don’t Try This At Home, Folks. (Also, We Have A Giveaway Winner.)
(The Hiking Moose pattern is nearly done. Maybe next post...) This knitting/crochet thing... it's supposed to be fun, right? Yes? I just thought I'd check, because, y'know, well because of this:- More on that abomination in a moment, but first of all we have a giveaway winner to announce. Remember this beauty? Thank you to the 225 of you who entered before the deadline, and I'm only sorry that there can't be 225 prizes, because this is rather a splendid book. As usual, I numbered all the Continue Reading
And The Winners Are… Also, Will You Look At This Patchwork!
Wowzers, that went quickly. A whole week has galloped past, and the Stylecraft voucher giveaway has closed. A huge thank you to everyone who entered, and to the generous folk at Stylecraft for providing the prizes. So shall we find out whether you've won? Oh, and may I just thank you for your kind comments (and name suggestions) for the sunset cowl. I've finished the knitting, and I'll be posting the finished thing with a free pattern - and a name! - within the next week or so. :-) But let's Continue Reading
The Mandala Picture: A Free Knitting Pattern
Another free pattern? Really? Well, yes. Aeons ago, I designed and knitted this large piece of craziness:- I wanted to play with the idea of the mandala, subvert the medium a wee bit, so I knitted a picture of a mandala. The idea of writing up this monster as a pattern was then filed away in Volume XII of the Great To-Do List in the bottom left corner of my brain**, between ‘learn to speak Finnish’ and ‘organize my sock drawer’. But then a nudging comment on a recent post prompted me to Continue Reading
Fern cushion for bench finished
I know, I've mentioned this a few times, but it is - at last - done! Completely done! I've sewn the two sides together around a custom-cut foam cushion, then sewn some white cord all the way around the join to make it neater. So... we have the green side (a couple of greenish shades of Rowan Fine Tweed roughly alternating):- And we have the red/brown side, also comprising a few shades of Rowan Fine Tweed thrown together. This side is supposed to coordinate with the curtains, but I Continue Reading
Plant life
Sometimes a girl just needs to knit some ferns. This is the story of a late Victorian box settle. I give you exhibit A:- 'Tis a popular piece of furniture in our house. The twinnage pats the carved lions' heads and practise roaring. Mr TwistedYarn dumps his legal files on it to a depth of three feet. And I sit on it and contemplate things. It needs a cushion though, doesn't it? So I'm knitting. I found a lovely design on Ravelry: Continue Reading