If you are a monthly newsletter subscriber you will have received an email yesterday telling you about some website issues I have been having. My contact form has been the target of spam bots and it’s been causing me a few issues that also affected my email list. Late morning yesterday I asked for assistance from the “Happiness Engineers” at WordPress, specifically asking for help from a person rather than an AI. The person who was assigned my case was amazing. They stayed online with me, ensuring they understood what my problem was, suggesting solutions, walking me through installing them and even checking to see if they’d worked in the desired way. When the original solutions didn’t work they went back to see what other options there might be. All in all this took about five hours! But I am very hopeful that these issues have been resolved. It wasn’t quite how I had been intended to spend the majority of Monday, but with any luck, it will have been worth it.
The main pic of today’s post is part of the front garden which is looking good in the cold, crisp sunshine. The fuchsia is having a major prune now we’ve had a hard frost which killed the flowers. I still find it hard to believe that the rosemary giant grew from one sprig of rosemary cut from a bush in the back garden that we just shoved into the ground. It’s looking a big ragged round the edges these days, so it may be time for a front garden refresh in the spring.
I’m glad to say Mum is out of hospital and improving. The knitted gnome from the book The Gnomes of Grimblewood that I am making for her is also coming along. Yesterday evening I finished the body and also made the arms, nose and beard. Once the beard is dry I will be able to complete it.
I am glad I asked Becci of RiverKnits exactly what she had used for the weighted stuffing in the bottom of her gnome when I saw hers on display at Stollen & Wolle (dried red lentils) and decided to use the same. It’s given the gnome a good stability without being too solid.
During the week I’ve also been playing with a ball of Zauberball yarn that I’ve had in my stash for a very long time. I decided to see how the long stripes worked with a simple moebius cowl. It’s a sized up version of what we knit in my moebius workshop, using 3mm needles and 4ply yarn over 400 sts rather than 5mm needles and aran yarn over 120 sts! The stripes in the yarn have a mirror image repeat, so using them in a moebius means you get twice as many colour changes as just knitting straight – I like it.
I’ll be teaching this technique again in February at the North West Winter Wool Festival in Blackpool on Sunday 15th February. The workshop is 2.5 hours, costs £36 and includes yarn, needles and handouts.
I’ve spoken a little about the tech editing course I’ve been taking. I’m on the final module now and I’ve learnt a lot. There are several things that will be useful for me as a designer as well, which is a double bonus. Once I’ve completed the course, the next step will be to find some people who would like me to tech edit their patterns!
On Thursday the new issue of The Knitter magazine (Issue 222) comes out and there will be a garment in it designed by me. I really enjoyed working on this garment – it’s been in the pipeline for quite some time. It was originally envisaged as a unisex item, was commissioned as a man’s jumper (and so was designed as such using male sizing charts), and finally was photographed on a female model – bringing the whole thing full circle! I’ve seen one of the photos and it looks great. When the rights return to me in six months I’ll also be asking which of my male friends has a 40″ chest and if I can photograph the jumper on them too!
That’s all from me for today. Until next week, take care and do some stuff that makes you happy. K x