The trouble with being home so much is that I'm a sitting target for anyone who wants food. And suddenly, it seems as though everyone wants food, all the time. Indoors, the twinnage want a snack. The answer is mostly 'no' because we're being cautious with our supplies. Also they had a stonking big lunch about three seconds ago. So I offer them a lecture about how snacks weren't even invented when I was a lass, and they roll their eyes and ask whether dinosaurs were around in my youth. By Continue Reading
Keep On Yarning
Hello. :-) Thank you, my fine fibrous friends, for your heartwarming comments in response to the self-care post, including the many from people who are new around here. (Welcome, do come in and please excuse the mess.) I started replying to each comment, but they number in the hundreds, and I'm not sure I can write a sensible response to every single one without being prosecuted for child neglect. Special thanks for your birthday wishes for Mother Twisted, but more on that in a Continue Reading
More Pondlife
When the world finally sees sense and appoints me President For Life, there are going to be some big changes around here. Obviously high on the list will be the introduction of paid knitting/crochet leave for all workers, and free access to yarn for the under-paid. But there'll also be some wildlife-friendly initiatives introduced within the first nanosecond or two of my iron-fisted forever-tenure. First of all, every garden will be mandated by law to include at least one wildlife pond. Continue Reading
A Tiny Love Story
Happy new year, my friends. In 2020, may your yarn never tangle and may nobody interrupt you when you're counting stitches. How's your new year going so far? Here at Twisted Towers, I've knitted a few rounds of sock, cleaned out the water-butt (yuckety-yuck), and taken the twinnage to the dentist. And a few days ago, something magical happened, involving this beauty:- You'll know the basics already if you follow me on Instagram, but here's the whole story. Do you remember last summer, Continue Reading
Hunting Parsnips
It's that oddball week between Christmas and New Year's Eve when nobody is sure what day or time it is, how many mince pies constitute an adequate breakfast, when the bins might next be collected, and whether or not the cat has been fed. We don't even have a cat (sadly), so this problem really shouldn't tax us as much as it does. I was back at work yesterday. Driving to the hospital on near-empty roads, I battled anxious thoughts about whether it really was definitely, definitely Friday, Continue Reading
Fun With Power Tools
Never, ever, in the history of everything, has a woman waited with such excitement for a mountain of well-rotted compost to be plonked on her doorstep. Oh hang on, perhaps I need to rewind this a teensy bit. Shall we knit/crochet a little whilst I explain? If it’s OK, I’ll finish sewing the buttons on to the Trip To Town cardigan that I’m making for my friend Alice. (Pattern by Drops here.) If you’re reading this, Alice, please pretend not to have noticed that last sentence, or the photo 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
Juniper And Friends
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 into 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. The problem - in my case - is that it's too tempting to spend every spare minute outdoors; messing about with the 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. 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 of anything else, either, NOT EVEN KNITTING! I did make it as far as the back garden the other day, where a certain feathered someone let it Continue Reading