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
This Really Is Terribly Important
So I'm busy writing an extremely important letter to the Met Office on the subject of SNOW. (For non-UK readers, the Met(eorological) Office is our publically-funded national weather forecasting/monitoring service.) Feel free to knit and crochet whilst I talk. Oh, and help yourself to some of that wine. So what do you think of what I've drafted so far? Dear Sirs/Madams (Madams? That sounds dodgy.) I am writing to respectfully request that you cease your current practice of knowingly and Continue Reading
So That Was 2015
Oh all right then, I submit. Every other blogger in the world has produced lovely collages of their stuff for an end-of-2015 post, so I suppose I should follow suit. Here are six images of 2015-y goodness from TheTwistedYarn. I hope you enjoy them. (And for those of you kind enough to have followed this blog a'while, I hope you don't expire through boredom from the repetition of these pictures.) So let's begin with some of the things that I designed from scratch in 2015. As you'll see, there's Continue Reading
Time Travel
Good evening, my fine fibrous friends. I hope that you're so far ahead in your Christmas knitting/crochet, that you have plenty of time to read this post. And if you don't celebrate Christmas, I hope that your Thursday has nevertheless been filled with joy and productivity (and yarn - lots and lots of luscious yarn). Today at the Twisted Yarn, we're going to engage in a wee smidgeon of time travel. I hope you don't mind if I knit whilst we talk? I'm a little behind with the projects that I Continue Reading
Looking For Mud
It's good to be out of quarantine at last. The Tyrannical Twinnage and I have been bimbling around south Oxfordshire's various towns running errands today. One of those errands involved yarn, so I can't complain. More on that, later. We took the winding back roads through thatched, rose*-covered villages, and over ancient stone hump-backed bridges that bounced the twinnage in their carseats and made them giggle. Those bridges criss-crossed the Thames, the river narrow and enthusiastic in its Continue Reading
Crochet In The Spring
And so I was wandering around our old village with the Toddler Twinnage, in the warm almost-spring sunshine. (There is a crochet point to this post, honest. I'm working up to it.) We noticed many things: the ancient thatched walls... ...and the early spring flowers, pretty much all of which are either yellow or purple, a combination that maintains my belief in nature as genius designer. I mean, look at the colour wheel: yellow is pretty much opposite purple, so we're onto a winner in Continue Reading
K1, k1, k1, (sip 1), k1, k1, (pause for imposition of real life), k1, k1, (berate toddler twinnage), k1…
...And meanwhile, far in the background, (so very far that it looks a little hazy), the Arne and Carlos blanket swells, garter stitch by easy garter stitch. I just thought I'd give it a teeny bit of blog-space again. 'Tis my mindless go-to project at 3am when work stress pokes my brain awake, or a twin or two tries to pull my nose off, or some Lego intrudes painfully on my lower vertebrae. I'm disappointed that the blanket isn't finished yet, because I had visions of the twinnage and I snuggling Continue Reading
In Which I Took A Tiny Break From Knitting To Visit The Family Seat
There is an old pub, deep in the rolling English countryside, not so very far from here. Baskets of flowers hang from its every exterior beam and bracket. A little fountain plays on the lawn out front, and a stone lizard guards its small pond. A ghost roams its cellar. There are rooms to rent for the weary traveller, and the bar is crowded with a collection of champagne bottles and every beer you could imagine. Returning outside, the flowerbeds are edged with bright pool balls, and the view is Continue Reading