This year's Stylecraft Blog Tour has been fun so far. If you've been following along, you'll have seen all sorts of pretty knits and hookings, each one designed by one of the Stylecraft Blogstars, and each reflecting its designer's style and personality. Clearly my own personality is 'Woman who likes looking at dead stuff that drops off trees in autumn'. Thank you for your comments about the pattern (available for free, here). For those of you who asked, I'm going to produce it as a pdf so Continue Reading
Hurray! It’s The Knitting And Stitching Show!
It's been a busy few weeks around here. In addition to all the usual stuff, there's been the taking-my-chair-on-TV, plus running the half-marathon, plus organising the twinnage's birthday shenanigans. The universe rewarded me for all this dashing about by giving me a chest infection, so this blog post is coming at you from the sofa, and may be interrupted by bouts of coughing. Apologies. COUGH, cough, cough, cough, COUGH! See? Sorry. But on Sunday, I was feeling considerably better, so I Continue Reading
In Which I Get To Witter About Yarn On TV
It's good to step outside your comfort zone every once in a while. It's maybe not so clever to leap naked from a speeding comfort zone, yelling 'geronimo!' and brandishing the Antarctic flag. But hey. It would be fair to say that last weekend, I ventured a very, very, long way from my comfort zone. (Just for the record, my comfort zone is located in front of the fire, post-run, with friends, wine, books, and knitting/crochet. ) My comfort zone is definitely not to be found in a television Continue Reading
It’s The Knitting And Stitching Show Giveaway!
Would you like to win free tickets to the Knitting And Stitching Show? And even if you don't win, would you like a nice chunky discount on your ticket price? (Clue: the answer to both of those questions is a big fluffy YES!) I know, I know: a fair few of you would need to zoom through the sky inside a long metal tube in order to attend. (It'd be totally worth the trip, though.) But for anyone who can get to London, the show will be on at Ally Pally from 11th-15th October, and I have in my hand Continue Reading
The Little Book Of Yarn Dyeing: A Book Review For Yarn Addicts
You know what some people say how drug use can escalate out of control and into addiction? Well I don't know about that, but I do know that knitting and crochet most definitely work that way. It begins with 'Ooh, I'll just learn to knit so that I can make this cute hat,' and then before you know it, you've forgotten the names of a couple of your children and there is actual vegetation growing in your kitchen sink, because you've become A TINY BIT OBSESSED with knitting a perfect replica of Continue Reading
Winning Some, Losing Some. Actually, Mostly Losing.
May I sit with you a-while, please, and knit? (I know, I promised posts on Salts Mill and the tatting workshop - they're coming.) Today has been one of those days when you end up with less yarnery than you had at the start. Do you ever have days like that? I've been working on creating a design using Stylecraft's new yarn ('Tweedy'). But it just was not working. Would you like to take a look at my failure? (I can't believe I'm doing this. Will you still respect me in the morning?) OK, here Continue Reading
Weekending. With Yarn.
The other weekend, the 'Stylecraft Blogstars' headed to West Yorkshire for our twice-yearly gathering of woolly minds. Imagine an entire weekend spent with kindred creative souls, where people will look at you funny if you don't chatter on (and on) about knitting and crochet. Imagine a get-together where it's practically de rigueur to cast on at the breakfast table. Imagine a weekend where nobody would dream of interrupting you whilst you're counting. Imagine getting a glimpse into the Continue Reading
Want To Win A Marvellous Noro Book? Yes?
Have you ever knitted (or hooked) with Noro yarn? If not, then this unique Japanese producer should be on your fibrous bucket list. You might love Noro, you might hate it, but you're unlikely to be indifferent. A quickish guide for the uninitiated: Noro produces s-l-o-w-l-y colour-shifting self-striping yarns in various combinations of wool, silk, cotton, and alpaca. Here's a very old and dodgy photo from my little-more-sophisticated-than-a-chap-sitting-inside-my-phone-drawing-a-sketch phone Continue Reading
Want To See Around An Old Woollen Mill?
Would you like to see around a really old woollen mill? Step this way. And yes I know; there's been a wee bloggy hiatus, caused by us spending a week scrambling through the forests and mountains of Snowdonia*... ...plus taking the twinnage down to Pinewood Studios to get fitted for costumes for a small non-speaking part in a major feature film. The film thing is something of a surprise because amongst the things that we Twisteds do each day - step over casually abandoned piles of yarn and Continue Reading
Comfort-Knitting
Sometimes, you just need a mindless comfort-knit. This fellow is going to be a cardigan, worked in 'Nepal', a wool-alpaca blend by Drops:- What I was too ashamed to tell you in my last post when I showed you this lovely new yarn I'd bought... ...was that in a moment of financial insanity, I actually bought three different bundles of yarn, to make three different cardigans. (I'm always cold. As is this house. The cardigans will at least get a great deal of wear.) The Drops Nepal is well on Continue Reading