So the last week has been interesting. I had Covid for the first time and it fairly knocked me flat. Two full days in bed, two more days on the sofa not doing anything, two days where I was able to do a bit of work at my desk. Yesterday we left the house briefly for the first time and today we had a walk. My sense of smell completely vanished and it affects your sense of taste far more than I realised. It’s starting to come back now which is a relief. I even cheered when my lovely wife, who’s also been ill, came into the lounge last night and said “It smells of old farts in here!” My reply was “You can smell again – brilliant!”
And this morning we woke to find the broadband in our area is down. So, no Wi-Fi, no landline (thanks full fibre for the digital phone) and, as our thermostat is on the Wi-Fi, I don’t think I can advance the heating either! News via the local Facebook group says it should be fixed tonight, but varies between that being a ‘this evening’ tonight or an ‘early hours of the morning’ tonight.
At least we have the gas fire and plenty of woolly layers! And hurrah for 4G data.
I suspect it’s part of the fallout from the latest storm. We escaped lightly from that. 60+ mph winds all day on Saturday, but no damage and utterly grateful to live up a big hill so no flooding either. Mostly of the town seems to be without broadband at the moment and some have been so for days.
I picked up my knitting again on Sunday, having not done any since last Monday (as Spike Milligan once said: “I told you I was ill!”) and it felt really soothing. It’s a new design, due out next year and I’m looking forward to sharing it with you.
There’s another new design coming out soon which is an exclusive freebie when you buy an advance ticket for the North West Winter Wool Festival. Tickets are on sale already and the link to the pattern will be available soon. The show is in February (15-16) so there’s plenty of time to knit the pattern up and wear it when you come to the show! The pattern will then be publicly available to buy from mid-March. I may even have a photo or two to share with you next week…!
In the meantime, there are some Flying the Shawls 2025 calendars still here that I would love to send to new homes for the new year. You may have spotted my post on Facebook and Instagram yesterday, but if not:
📣 Special Offer while stocks last! 📣
Flying the Shawls 2025 desktop calendar is available via Payhip for £10 + p&p. There are less than 20 copies remaining and they make great presents!
The offer? If you add the calendar to your Payhip basket, you can also add the Fiery Dragon Skin Cowl digital pattern at a whopping 50% discount! No code is required, just click the ‘add to my basket’ button that pops up. The calendar will be posted to you and you will be able to download the pdf of the pattern once you check out both items.
Why did I choose this pattern as the one for such a special offer? It’s a one-skein pattern that knits up quickly and there are options for almost any weight of yarn (apart from lace) included within the pattern. So, if you need to knit a gift that doesn’t take too long and you have 100g of yarn (from 4-ply to chunky), this pattern has you covered. Personally, I’ve knitted this pattern in 4ply, sport weight hand-spun, DK and Chunky hand-spun yarns.
Another joy of Brexit is that rules about selling to the EU (which for the purposes of this new law also includes Northern Ireland) are changing imminently and many small businesses have been discussing what they will and won’t be able to do, so to ensure I don’t accidentally fall foul of any new exporting rules, this offer is only available to folk in Great Britain (England, Wales and Scotland) – sorry!
I hope you are keeping dry, warm and well, and that you get to do some things that make you happy this week. Take care, K x