We all make mistakes, right? Errors such as thinking, "I can finish knitting this jumper before my friend's birthday." Or deciding that of course you'll remember what size hook you were using to crochet that half-done afghan. The Stoic Spouse has a foolproof method for avoiding knitting and crochet mistakes... which is to never once in his life attempt either knitting or crochet. He has thus maintained a laudable 0% failure rate in all things yarny, unlike the rest of us fallible mortals. Continue Reading
Snail Porridge
A hundred hearty hellos to you, my Fine Fibrous Friends. I've chattered here lately about the cardigan design commissioned by Novita yarns. At the risk of triggering yarny catastrophe via sheer hubris, I'm pleased with the result. It's a combination of stranded colourwork, gentle-shaping-without-messing-up-the-motifs, and four (four! FOUR!) steeks. For those of you who were asking about an English-language version of the pattern, I've been told that three months after it's published in Finnish Continue Reading
In Which The Universe Laughs Heartily At My Expense
Hello my Fine Fibrous Friends, and thank you for your kindness in response to my last post. Your words have been a comfort. Seriously. Meanwhile, this week's life lesson has been, BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR. Also, WHEN YOU'RE IN A HOLE, YOU SHOULD PROBABLY RECONSIDER YOUR URGE TO DIG. With a side order of, TRUST THE DILIGENT WORK YOU'VE PUT INTO DESIGNING AND DON'T MAKE STUPID IMPULSIVE DECISIONS LATE AT NIGHT. Would you like to see details of my humiliation? Of course you would. This blog Continue Reading
Blue And Yellow
Hello, my Fine, Fibrous Friends. Please note that this post is illustrated with photos of all sorts of things that just happened to float to the forefront of my mind as I wrote. Many of them are a bit out-of-season right now, but you'll forgive that I hope? We are not living in funny times, but it's OK to seek solace in humour (and art, and nature, and literature, and sport) on even the darkest of days. Laughter was my coping strategy when I had cancer, for example... that and growing Continue Reading
Farmhouse Socks
It's been a while since we had a book review, so let's rectify that right this minute. (I suppose it's also been a while - an infinite span of time in fact - since we had a squirrel review, but that might have to wait for another day.) Under the literary magnifying glass this time is Rachel Boulahanis' Farmhouse Socks, a self-published hardback bursting with 15 sock patterns inspired by the author's time on her grandparents' farms. I like to knit something from books when I review them... but Continue Reading
Going Viral
Oh, hello covid. I've been expecting you. Well it was going to happen some time, wasn't it? (There is positivity later in this post, I promise. I'm conscious from comments on the previous post that many of you have quite understandably Had Enough Of This Excrement. And so I want to lighten the mood. Keep going, friends, I'll get silly again in a few paragraphs' time.) Briefly, back to the Covid. This invisible thing, this murderous and disabling psychopath that's been threatening everyone Continue Reading
Doodling
Just occasionally, life runs smoothly. Traffic lights turn respectfully green as I approach (am I the only person who has good-traffic-light days and bad-traffic-light days?) and the twinnage clean their teeth on something less than the seventeenth time of asking. Other days, the roof springs a new leak, next door's cat poos on my veg beds, and I go to work in the day-job unaware that there are dinosaur stickers attached to the back of my jumper until a patient or a colleague points it Continue Reading
Oh hello, 2022: you gonna behave, yeah?
I'm going to risk beginning with the words 'Happy new year', on the off-chance that I finish drafting this post before it's time to crack open the Easter eggs, AND on the off-chance that this new year does in fact turn out to be in any way happy. After the horrors of 2021 and 2020 (and 2016, for those of us Brits who treasure our European neighbours), I hope that your 2022 will be at the very least Not Overtly Dreadful. Right now, a merely non-abysmal year would feel like a great big win. Here's Continue Reading
The Easiest-Knitted Of Christmas Decorations
I'm not very good at Christmas. You'd think that the fact it always occurs on the same date would lend it a certain predictability, but no. It takes me by surprise, every single year. I'm not very good at looking ahead to dates - or even times - in general. It's a source of irritation to the Stoic Spouse that I'm incapable of thinking about dinner until, er, dinnertime. Booking a holiday ahead of the actual date we're planning to go? Forget it. Beginning work on something until the deadline is Continue Reading
The Leaves Have Fallen And The Free Cowl Pattern Is Here
Would you like a free pattern for a cosy autumnal cowl? It's this one, that I mentioned a couple of posts ago. There's a link to the pattern near the end of this post. In the unlikely event that you didn't devour and memorise every word of that blog post (Whaddya mean, you've "got a life to be getting on with"?) here's a recap: I was commissioned to design the original version of the cowl nearly five years ago, for the 'Hobbycraft' chain of shops. Sadly, the specified yarn is no longer made, Continue Reading