I'm not trying to put you off my coming-soon pattern... but I'm probably about to put you off my coming-soon pattern. I've been busy making one of each colourway of the crochet version of the Four Seasons cowl, after working the four colourways of the knitted version, and creating the original as a 50th birthday present for a lifelong friend. That's quite a lot of spotty stripey cowls. I'm kind of over it, truth be told. Yikes, I shouldn't be grumbling about a product that I'm about to Continue Reading
Artificial Lack Of Intelligence
Hello, my Fine Fibrous Friends. This post comes to you from a seat beside the fire, because it's properly cold out there,* and also it's close to hats-inside-the-house-cold in here, too. Unfortunately I don't always win the race to the comfiest fireside seat:- Like the stereotypical tourist who springs from their bed at 6am to reserve their poolside lounger with a towel, I have to strategically book this chair in advance by placing some sort of cat-incompatible object on it. But then I feel Continue Reading
The Four Seasons Cowl: A New Pattern
It's done. The new cowl pattern is complete in all four of its seasonal connotations, and the pattern is HERE. Not that you're likely to wear a cowl all year round, but each of the above palettes has been inspired by a season, so that you can for example bring bold summer cheerfulness to your grey Monday in February as you run for the bus in the rain. I'm sure that those joyful pinks and purples will lift your mood as you watch the bus leave your stop when you're almost there, passing as it Continue Reading
Florence
Florence. You've (possibly) visited the city, you've seen the photos, now knit the cushion! But more on that in a minute. Here in southern Britain, it's been raining since... well actually I can't remember when this wretched rain began. Last month? Last decade? The Pleistocene epoch? Who knows. The landscape is grey and soggy. Gazing out of the window is not an uplifting experience, unless you're inspired by sludge. Every time I go for a run, I'm not so much running as dancing, in a Continue Reading
Winter Colours
There is knitting in this post I promise, but there's also lots of winter colour because if you're anything like me, you find the natural world and the landscape endlessly fascinating and inspiring. (And if you're not anything like me, then congratulations on being such a well-adjusted member of society.) Those eleventy hundred bulbs I planted in the autumn are beginning to reveal themselves and I can't resist showing you a few:- Judging by the green fronds poking up all over the place, Continue Reading
Frogging The Frog
The other morning, I picked up my knitting (nothing unusual in that), muttered some words that aren't repeatable here (not as rare as it should be), and frogged FOURTEEN THOUSAND stitches of stranded colourwork. (Youch.) I tried to film the experience in a speeded-up, time-lapsy, sort of way, but technology was against me. So then I went off to do my tax return instead. Sigh. Could the day have got any more fun-filled? Well yes, actually, it probably could have done. But it Continue Reading
Getting To The Bottom Of The Matter
Are we all here? Yes? Well good evening, and thank you for coming at such short notice. I just thought it would be a good idea to have a blog post updating you on various bits and pieces that I've mentioned recently. It's a pretty full agenda, so assuming you're all settled with your knitting or crochet, let's get going. First on the agenda is the naming of the spinning wheel. A big thank you to all 247 people who voted. And as per the outcome, may I proudly present Monsieur Algernon Spinburne, Continue Reading
Blogstars Weekend, Part Two.
PREVIOUSLY, ON THE TWISTED YARN... the Stylecraft Blogstars began their twice-yearly meetup in West Yorkshire with a visit to the textiles department at Huddersfield University. Afterwards, we headed to our hotel. Everyone else was probably thinking terribly sensible, grown-up thoughts, but my mind was full of SNOW! SNOW! SQUEEE! Granted, it wasn't much, but the following morning it snowed a little more, and the needle on my over-excitement dial spun so far out of control that centrifugal 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
Anyway, I Digress…
←Don't forget the Bloomsbury children's book giveaway in the previous post. There's still time to enter. As it is in yarn, so it is in life. Honestly, my head's been all over the place this past week, and so has my knitting/crochet. One minute I'm tinkering in the undergrowth in the garden of that crochet project, the next minute I'm wondering what sort of mittens to knit for the twinnage because I made the mistake of buying them some gloves with fingers which turns out to be more fiddly hassle Continue Reading