Saturday was Yarn Shop Day here in the UK. Knitters and hookers everywhere showed their love for yarn shops, whilst in return, the yarn shops showed their love for knitters and hookers. What's not to like? A crack team of Stylecraft Blogstars was despatched to various events around the country. In my case, I landed at Masons in Abingdon (Oxfordshire), which happens to be my favourite yarn shop. Eek, what's this outside?! Well it was a good thing that the sign said 'about 2pm' for the Continue Reading
A Quick Poll
Why, thank you for your generous comments about The Hiking Moose (crochet) Cowl, you lovely lot. Having published the knitted version as well as the crochet version, I was wondering more than usual how many of you are knitters, how many are hookers, and how many are bicraftual. Would you do me the honour of answering this quick one-question poll, please? Just click one of the following circles and then hit the 'vote' button... Thank you. Meanwhile, tomorrow (Saturday) is Yarn Shop Day, at Continue Reading
So That Was Mine. How Was Yours?
So that's over for another year. And look! I'm just a few stitches off completing both sleeves of Glitter Glam. Then there's just the collar and the assembly to do. Anyway, Christmas happened. A rotund and elderly chap dressed in red broke into our house via the chimney. But instead of stealing stuff, he left little chocolatey gifts around the place, hidden inside old socks. All normal rules of not-accepting-sweets-from-strangers were off as the twinnage tore the foil wrapping from Continue Reading
It’s Winter: Bring Yarn
There's still time to enter the awesome yarn/pattern giveaway, right here and here! (For your bonus Facebook entry, don't forget to 'like' the 'Yarn's overall Facebook page, not just the post about this contest.) Wa-hey, it's December! I remember my teacher at primary school telling our class that we Brits are all obsessed with talking about the weather. So it's my patriotic duty to say right now, Man, it's COLD! In fact, the mercury has shrunk so shiveringly low in the glass that it's Continue Reading
Village Knitting
I love our village. It’s the type of place where you can sit in the pub with knitting and crocheting friends talking about anything, whilst people play cards at the next table and a dog snoozes near the door. There's a fair-to-middling chance of bumping into someone you know when you haul your rear out of the sofa and get up to fetch more drinks. Occasionally there’s even a rival knitting group around. People here talk to you because they’ve seen you around. They usually want to know Continue Reading
Outdoors Knows It’s Pretty
You’ve still got time (just!) to enter the Wool And The Gang yarn giveaway! Just head over here… Meanwhile, I’ve been all over the place – knitting a bit of this, crocheting a bit of that, drifting from room to room, bumping into members of the household whom I’d forgotten existed... “Great uncle Mortimer! Heavens, I haven’t seen you since the Great Tidying Up of ’96! How the very devil are you, ol’ bean? What’s that you say? Huh? Oh. What, that cupboard there? The one with the hefty lock on Continue Reading
Trying Hard Not To Get Shot
I hate getting caught in the middle of a shoot-out when I'm half-way through my run. (Or, indeed, at pretty much any stage of my run.) Hang on, just let me do a bit more work on the giant crochet house/garden project (that REALLY is nearly finished). Gotta steady my nerves. Is it me, or do these attempts at daisies on the lawn resemble fried eggs? Sigh. Back to the drawing board. We live in the countryside, so like it or not, people shoot things and then eat them. (Sometimes they even cook Continue Reading
Mad March Hares
I love how nature goes stark staring bonkers right around this time of year. To be fair, I'd go bonkers too at the first sign of spring if I'd spent the winter shivering in the garden, surviving on a dwindling supply of berries, bugs, and birdseed. But right now, you can't move for nature frisking, flirting, squabbling, and, ahem, doing what comes naturally. I'll save the best for last. If you think the trade in homes for people is brutal, then you should see the avian property market. A Continue Reading
Ridge And Furrow, Gone Tomorrow
Whilst we knit/hook, shall we indulge in a little ancient history? So on a scale from 'bewildered' to 'undisputed world authority', how au fait are you with the concept of ridge and furrow? I have to ask, because I tend to assume that if even I know something, then it really must be painfully obvious to everyone else. Long car journeys of my childhood often involved spotting examples of ridge and furrow in fields beside the motorway: it's pretty distinctive once you know what you're looking Continue Reading
Oops.
Oops. No really, oops. I could tell you about my latest idiocy, or I could show you my shiny new hat. Err..... let's go with the hat. OK it's not shiny but it is a new hat and I've finished knitting it. Here's a side view:- A very easy knit, by the way, although I won't miss the endless rounds of k1p2. Pattern: Yvette. Yarn: James C. Brett Marble Chunky, a gift from a friend. Oh all right, I'll tell you about what a dork I've been. Once again, it involved running. This emerging Continue Reading