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
Easter. Chocolate. Home-Brew.
Typical. You put out a blog post about how cold and grey it is, and barely have the pixels dried on the screen (my understanding of technological hardware may be imperfect) when the sun leaps out from behind a cloud, yelling "TA-DA!" and makes everything springlike. That said, by the time you read this, it's due to be dull and damp again. This blog post is brought to you courtesy of the Stoic Spouse's homebrew (which is actually rather tasty), so don't be surprised if the final few paragraphs Continue Reading
Knitted Butterflies
So it's been cold and grey and damp in a way that suggests the arrival of spring. This cold-and-grey is definitely different from winter cold-and-grey because this is cold-and-grey-WITH-DAFFODILS.* Here's what happens when you try and photograph daffodils at dusk in the pouring rain after an exceptionally tricky day at work. (Don't try this at home, folks: as you can see, it's liable to end with wobbly edges.) So in the absence of spring sunshine, we have to make our own colour. Fortunately, Continue Reading
And Then We Disappeared Off To Herefordshire
So anyway, my parents (the Twisted Seniors) have a long-established tradition of pulling up their tent-pegs and moving to a completely different part of the country every 10-15 years or so. They're at it again as we speak, and have just sold their home in beautiful rural Herefordshire, ready to come and share a county with us here in Oxfordshire. With the move imminent, the Toddler Twinnage and I decided to make a may-or-may-not-be-the-last visit to Herefordshire, whilst the Stoic Spouse stayed Continue Reading
Spring! Don’t Jump Out At Me Like That!
WOAH-there. Spring, where on earth did you, um, 'spring' from? That was a bit sudden. A few days ago I was pondering whether our log supplies would last the month at our current rate of huddling in front of the log-burner, and whether I could afford another lorry-load of logs, and whether my stinking head-cold was turning to bubonic plague (being prone to diagnostic melodrama), and now I'm sitting in my parents' Herefordshire garden, enjoying these colours whilst the Toddler Twinnage rampage Continue Reading
Crochet Therapy
...And then there are days that don't quite work. Do you know the feeling? I think I'm still raw from intense hours with patients' harrowing stories at work this week. And the Toddler Twinnage were a leeeeetle bit relentless in their Mummy-Mummy-Mummy-Mummy-Mummy all day today. And I possibly ate too many of the choc chip cookies that I baked this morning. And my first attempt at crocheting my bag strap in the round went all Mobius on me and had to be ripped out. Yes, yes, I've got these Continue Reading
The Blog Post Of Many Things
That stranded skirt I'm designing? It's progressing, y'know:- No further progress has been made on the crocheted house, but the yarn for the windows has arrived, so I need to begin swatching some glasswork. Is it obvious that this post will be a tad desultory? Well the past few days have been a bit like that. I have some exciting secrets to reveal soon, but not quite yet. Rest assured, I'll be telling you as soon as I can... But look! I've discovered a quirky new stitch! Nothing Continue Reading
The Only Arctic Musk Ox In Herefordshire
Herefordshire is a pretty, muddy, green English county snuggled up against the edge of Wales, its lush hills gazing at the neighbouring Welsh mountains. My parents live there in peace, tidyness, and rural tranquility, or at least they do until my battered old car screeches to a halt in their driveway, instantly wiping £10 000 off local house prices until we leave again. The car engine is switched off or possibly stalls, and out stagger the Toddler Twinnage, hungry and over-tired after the Continue Reading
Why I’m No Longer On Speaking Terms With Winter
So anyway, I said to the weather gods, "You're not having me on again this time, are you? It's absolutely definitely going to snow in Oxfordshire on Tuesday night?" And they said - through the medium of their high priests the weather forecasters - "Yup, you better believe it, Twisted." And I said, "Because you know, I haven't glimpsed snow in two long years and I'm getting twitchy." And they said, "Well you will tonight. Heaps of the stuff. Enough for a really joyful, photo-heavy blog post." So Continue Reading
Spring stitchery
Sometimes life is hard. Sometimes - unless you're very unlucky - life is good. The last few days have been particularly good here at TheTwistedYarn, (which no doubt means that everything will go catastrophically wrong tomorrow). The Toddler Twinnage have played adorably, the stoic spouse has spent happy evenings preparing to lay model railway track in the back garden of our brewery home (don't ask), and I have had some peaceful knitting moments in the spring sunshine. The other day, on a Continue Reading