Our weekend trip to Gloucester was very successful and Sue’s reading at the Gloucester Poetry Festival was brilliant – I’m so very proud of her. The picture above is part of Gloucester Cathedral’s tower, and yes, the sky really was that blue on Saturday afternoon, despite the torrential rain the day before. It was lovely to see the Malvern Hills again (through the rain) as we drove down, and to see Moel Famau in sunshine as we neared home! If you have a few spare minutes, do read Sue’s blog post from yesterday – it includes the first poem she read on Saturday. We enjoyed lots of readings from lots of other poets as well during the day and evening on Saturday, and I was quietly knitting on Mum’s bed socks throughout.
I now have a finished pair! The sock blocker gives more of a realistic impression of how they’ll look in use – the change between syncopated rib (leg) and stocking stitch (foot) makes them look quite odd otherwise!
I’m not going to weave in the yarn ends at the toes until Mum has tried them on. They go down to 20 stitches and look quite pointy from the top, and I want them to be comfortable for her.
I continued to knit and document my progress on my Barragán Shawl while we were away (you can still order your own yarn kit or get it free with a subscription from The Knitter). Even though I’m only doing 10 rows per day at the moment it’s growing well. Today’s rows have yet to be done, but this is what 130 rows looks like:
This photograph was taken in the morning light and is pretty true to the colour of the yarn.
Something else exciting that happened while we were away was that I picked up a new-to-me car! I’d test driven it the week before when visiting Mum and it’s perfect. Exactly the make and model I thought I needed and I can’t believe the boot space. And it’s blue. You know me and blue – I do like it. Of course now I want to experiment (play) with putting all my show stuff in it to see the best way of getting everything in. All my stuff in one car – with the passenger seat free for Sue as well. It’s been a pipe-dream.
I wore my Umbriel for the first time yesterday and it’s very cosy. Today I’ve managed to get some pics of it. It’s got generous ease which is exactly what I wanted as I will be wearing it over layers. I do like the picked up, top down sleeve construction in the design. I think this is a construction I will explore in my own designs in future – no sewing the sleeve head into the armhole after knitting it, cos it’s all made in one piece!
While we were taking pics, I also got some of Lichfield. It’s starting to pill (bobble) a bit, but I think that’s because it’s not a high twist yarn, as well as the fact that I’ve been wearing it a lot.
Sales of Bodelwyddan are pottering on – please do spread the word about the October fund-raiser for Treasure Chest YGC. 50% of Bodelwyddan sales during October are going to this charity, which helps to support folk who are going through/have been through treatment for breast cancer in Denbighshire. I was asked to design these socks last year to be part of the fund-raising and so far we’ve sold 9 copies, raising £22.50. I’d love it to be more!
I’m wearing my pair of Bodelwyddan socks today. This is the largest size in the leg, decreasing to the next size down for the foot.
Next month, which somehow is only a couple of weeks away, I get the rights back for Branwen, the first knit-along shawl I designed for The Knitter. This is one of the gorgeous photos from The Knitter.
Branwen will be going out into the world as a single pattern for the first time. There is likely to be an introductory discount for my newsletter subscribers, so if that sounds appealing, why not sign up for my newsletter by adding your email in the box below and clicking the blue button?
When I write to you next week, I shall have turned 50! The lead up to this milestone birthday has been very good so far and I’m looking forward to starting my next decade in a much better place than I started the last one. I’m even going to be doing some singing again.
Til then, take care, do stuff that makes you happy and stay safe, K x
Happy Birthday!
Thank you!