Ah-ha, I realize now why Robyn-the-robin and I have a special bond. She figured it out way before I did. It seems that we have something in common. Just an ordinary breakfast-time at our house. You see, we're both twin-mums. That would explain our shared under-eye baggage, at least. (Yes I know, other sources of chronic exhaustion are available. Parents - even twin parents - don't have a monopoly on tired, etc etc, etc.) But sometimes it feels good to hang out with a fellow Continue Reading
The Twisted Future
(I drafted this post before anti-racist protests in the USA and then here in the UK unfolded. But see bottom of the page for my position on the matter.) I have knitting, and the twinnage have running-around-pretending-to-be-gazelles-space. Both of these things are good. What you can't see in this picture is that it's just beginning to chuck it down with rain and none of us has thought to bring a coat. If I ever become a grandmother, one day way ahead in the future, I shall tell my Continue Reading
A Token Effort
To continue where the previous post left off, I'm now grafting chunks of skirt back together using the kitchener stitch because hey, I like to laugh in the face of potential knitpocalyse. It's not a quick process, partly because of frequent interruptions by Robyn-the-robin tapping on the window for more mealworms... or a passing twin asking, "Mummy, do birds have tongues?" or "Can you hear electricity?" or "When's lunch?" At least Robyn is able to answer one of those Continue Reading
Locked Down But Not Out
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. Since it's Easter, I made simnel cake. My apostles have no concept of social distancing. In other news, home-made marzipan is the BEST! 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 Continue Reading
Keep On Yarning
Hello. :-) Knitting, sunshine, and green tea. What you can't see is Robyn-the-robin in the apple tree beside me, demanding her 14th (or is it 15th?) lunch of the day. 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 Continue Reading
Progress, Of Sorts
Many thanks, you ridiculously lovely lot, for every single one of your kind words about my book deal. And if I've been quiet since the announcement, it's because I've been busy designing and writing. I'm breaking the habit of a lifetime by working hard from the outset, instead of leaving the task until 10pm on the night before it's due. Trust me when I say that this is deeply unfamiliar behavioural territory. I'm running quite a bit, too (twenty miles per week), which is helping to keep 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:- Robyn-the-robin. Look, you can even see her tiny eyelashes! You'll know the basics already if you follow me on 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 Continue Reading
Here Be Dragons
Every time, EVERY TIME I go outdoors to take a yarn-related picture, some bit of the natural world shows up and diverts my attention. Hello, beautiful. This is M. Dragonfly, who was loitering in the reeds beside the pond, hoping to find a mate... M. Dragonfly WLTM a fellow Common Darter Dragonfly, GSOH and own pond preferred. Please no timewasters or damselflies. Yeeks, is this what this blog has become? A dating site for arthropods? Did you know that (giant) dragonflies were 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. There's quite a bit of water in this post, but I'll get to that in a minute. Here's the view from a small rowing boat, under a bridge in Oxford. 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 Continue Reading