November doesn’t have much to commend it, here in the UK. It’s cold, it’s grey, it’s aggressively dark far too soon after lunch, and it’s very, very, soggy. Our wonky old brewery home is reliably cold and damp. Sometimes the Stoic Spouse suggests we put the heating on or light a log fire as he stands there wearing his woolly hat and his two pairs of socks and his hypothermic skin tone (though to be fair, blue as a colour does rather suit him). But if we put the heating on now, who knows what Continue Reading
Bisocial
Thank you, my Fine Fibrous Friends, for your kind words after my last post. I'm doing OK, but part of the boob surgery wound just won't heal, which is irritating ten weeks down the line because it's preventing me from running. Given that my physical and mental health and menopause-resilience are closely correlated with running mileage, this is a problem. I was due to run the Oxford Half Marathon on 16th October, but common sense and a medical note said DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT, LOSER. Colour me Continue Reading
Chopped
Hello, my Fine Fibrous Friends. As so often happens on this page, the story told by the words will likely weave in and out of the story told by the pictures, because different bits of life are best told via different media. At long last, it's done. After several postponements I've had the surgery to even things up bosom-wise post-cancer. (I've always been left-leaning politically, but wasn't keen to match that anatomically.) The surgeon who rocked up super-enthusiastically with his marker Continue Reading
Craft With Style(craft)
Hello again, my Fine Fibrous Friends. Speaking of fibrous, it's been a blissfully yarny time of late. For the first time since covid trampled on everyone's plans with all the malevolent energy of an overtired toddler, we've had a proper face-to-face meet-up of the Stylecraft Blogstars. Stylecraft did their utmost to keep things Zooming along during the pandemic, but... it wasn't the same. Absolutely not Stylecraft's fault at all. They did their very best. Stoopid covid. Anyway, the weekend Continue Reading
The Wrong Ystradowen
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